12/12/22: 9 people violently pushed back from Greece to Turkey on land

13.12.2022 / 13:37 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of December 2022

Case name: 2022_12_12-Eastern Med - 1085

Situation: 9 people violently pushed back from Greece to Turkey after walking for five days
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med / Northern Greece

Summary of the Case:
In the afternoon of the 12th of December, the Alarm Phone was informed about 9 people 70 km from Soufli who have been walking since 5 days and were wet, cold and injured. We informed the authorities and called the border guard stations in Metaxades, Soufli, Orestiada, Mikro Dereio and Didimoticho. We lost contact to the people in distress. At 7 in the evening, a relative told us that the people called 112 and UNHCR but did not receive any support. At 10 in the evening, we reach an officer in Soufli border guard station who tells us they would search for the people in distress. In the morning of the 13th of December, the officer in Soufli border guard station told us they didn't find anyone at the given position. The people in distress called us and said they are really cold because the night was rainy, and that there were 2 people who cannot move at all because they were too sick.
We kept on unsuccessfully calling border guard stations and updating them via e-mail. At 15:45 CEST on December 13th, the people in distress give us an updated position for the last time. We do not manage to reach them again afterwards.

On the 17th of May we get in contact with one of the people again, who tells us they violently got pushed back to Turkey. He reports that the group walked for 5 days and were wet, cold and in bad health, but really wanted to make it to Greece. They continued walking until they were 20 km far from Komotini. Then, police caught them and pushed them back to the Evros river and from there, back to Turkey. He says the police beat them violently, and that his friend was badly hurt after the attack. They took their shirts, personal belongings, phones and money away. He also says that now they are back in Turkey and that the living conditions are very hard there.

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