10/09: 5 men in distress pushed back to Turkey

11.09.2021 / 20:19 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of September 2021

Case name: 20210910-AEG820

Situation: 5 travellers stuck in the woods in Greece and pushed bak by the police

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On the 10th of September we were informed about a group of 5 men in the woods in Greece near the border to Turkey. Their money was stolen, they haven't eaten or had water for 3 days.They don't want border guards to be called, they ran away from torture and don't want to go back to Turkey. They ask us to call the local police, we do that and also inform the UNHCR. The police told us, they were trying to find them in the woods, while the people couldn't move because one person was injured. At 16:38 CEST we lost contact to the people. The police officer in Tychero claimed that they were still searching for the people.

On the 11th of September the people on the move told us that they were arrested in a village close to the Turkish border. They were searched, their phone were taken, they were beaten and verbally attacked. Afterwards they were forcibly returned to Turkey.

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans