13/05: 1 traveller stranded in the forest

14.05.2022 / 13:19 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of May 2022

Case name: 2022_05_13-AEG897

Situation: 1 traveller stranded in the forest, Greek police beat him and pushed him back to Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case: On the 13th of May 2022, Alarm Phone was called by a worried relative, alerting us to a man in distress on the northern Greek border. We managed to contact the person who told us that he is alone and lost in the forest and is afraid of being pushed-back. The next morning he told us that he is still in the forest and wants to apply for asylum in Greece. We lost contact with him for many hours and later learned that he was found by the Greek police who attacked him, injuring his arm and leg, and took his phone and money. He told us on the phone: "The officers took all my belongings, my money 80-90 Euro, even the clothes and my shoes. They beat me up and sent me back to Turkey. Also they took my phone, but I could hide my Simcard and now we can still talk." We alerted the authorities that this happened and that he wants to claim his rightful asylum in Greece. We managed to reach him and he explained that he was now in Edirne in Turkey because the Greek police beat him up, took his shoes, all his belongings and sent him back to Turkey.

Twitter/news link: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1525462906107842561

Last update: 11:27 Nov 15, 2022

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