06/09: 1 injured person pushed back in the Evros region

07.09.2022 / 16:51 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of September 2022
Case name: 2022_09_06-Evros – 995
Situation: 1 injured person pushed back in the Evros region
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med - Evros

At 21:55 CEST, we made contact with an injured person from Syria in Metaxades, in the Evros region. We immediately inform authorities and underline that the traveller wants to seek asylum in Greece and needs international protection. During the night we call several border guard stations. Different officers promise us that they will forward the alert to the responsible authorities.
The next day, we are unable to reach the person. In addition, police and border guard stations all claim to have not found the person. All this makes another illegal pushback very likely. We close the case with an unknown outcome.
Days later, we manage to establish contact with the person again. He gave us the following testimonial about the violent attack and pushback by Greek border guards:
«The Greek police arrested me. They took my phone and money. At night, I was handed over to the border guards. They were different from the Greek police and were wearing military uniforms. Some of them were of different nationalities, amongst them were mercenaries of Afghan nationality. We were transported in a closed car. There was no window to breathe. We were 70 people. Then we were put in a prison close to the Turkish border where we spend 9 hours. The prison was very dirty. There was no water or a bathroom. Women and men were put together in a small room. The treatment was very bad, our clothes were completely removed and we were left without food or water. Then we were taken to the river with beatings, insults and cursing without shoes. I told them that I suffer from disc disease and yet I was beaten and left without clothes in the cold. They forced us back to Turkey to swim across the river. In Turkey, the treatment was fairly good. They gave us shoes and clothes, set a fire to keep warm, and asked for cars for us to return to Istanbul. When I arrived in Turkey I stayed in the hospital for three days due to pain and now I am fine.»
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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