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Development WTM site16/12/22: Baby dead and mother pushed back after medical assistance was blocked on Lesvos!
17.12.2022 / 18:01 / Eastern Med
Two-month old Samuel from Sierra Leone died after arrival on Lesvos. While the police was delaying the arrival of medical assistance, Samuel's mother was pushed back to Turkey.
Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of December 2022
Case name: 2022_12_12-Eastern Med - 1090
Situation: 2-month-old baby died and mother pushed back after arrival on Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Mediterranean / Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:
On 16 December 2022, we were alerted by relatives about a group of approx. 40 people who arrived in the southern Fara area of Gera Bay on Lesvos. Among them was a pregnant woman who was in need of medical help.
At 7:25 CET, we alerted Greek authorities and several NGOs by email. We informed them that the people were in need of medical assistance and international protection.
We then lost contact to the group for several hours. In the evening of the same day, we received the information that only 32 people were found by Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), while the remaining 18 people were missing. The people that were found told MSF that the other 18 people were pushed back to Turkey. Tragically, one baby was reported dead - the father was among the group that was found on Lesvos but the mother was among the people who were pushed back.
At 21:32 CET, we called the Turkish Coast Guard and asked if they found 18 people in the area of Lesvos. They reported an incident east of Lesvos island, where they rescued 16 people (7 women, 9 men) on a life raft at 14:30h local time. According to the information given to us, the people said they were on the island and have been forced into life rafts by Greek officers.
The next day, we find the following article in Greek media reporting about the incident:
"A dead two-month-old infant is the toll from yesterday's shipwreck in Fara, while another 11-month-old baby has been missing at sea since last week. At least two Coast Guard search and rescue operations were carried out after two incidents, but they were kept secret as neither yesterday's operation nor that of last Friday were made public by the Coast Guard Press Office. On Thursday night in Lesvos, strong southern winds were blowing and a boat with about 50 people on board crashed into the rocks in the area near Fara beach. Thirty-four refugees were transported to Mytilene yesterday, Friday, including the father of the baby, who was injured in the shipwreck. The infant was evacuated to the Vostaneio Hospital where he was pronounced dead.”
(See: https://www.politikalesvos.gr/ena-vrefos-nekro-ki-ena-akomi-agnoeitai-se-dyo-quot-epicheiriseis-quot-mesa-se-liges-meres/)
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published a statement on Twitter (see below), stating that they were blocked for 2 hours in a road-block of the police, which resulted in the delay of medical assistance for the baby that later died in the hospital of Mytilene.
In reaction to the incident, the Greek police published a press release attributing their presence and the blocking of medical assistance to a criminal investigation opened against the Alarm Phone in 2020.
On 20 December 2022, we published a statement, in which we emphasized that the real crimes are the delay in medical assistance and we raised the question on the whereabouts of the mother of the child:
“We can only repeat: the real crimes are pushbacks and human rights violations carried out by the Greek government and are funded and supported by the European Union!
The Hellenic Police’s press release is a desperate attempt to cover up their crime.
Access to the people in distress was needlessly blocked.
The baby’s mother is reported missing. Is it possible that she was among those who were found on a life-raft drifting in Turkish waters some hours after the incident?
How many more lives have to get lost until this murderous policy of deterrence along EU borders ends?”
In January, we received a message about the burial of 2-month-old Samuel on Lesvos:
"Yesterday, in another cemetery on the island, the tiny body of 2-month old Samuel, from Sierra Leone was buried. In December, MSF medics were denied access to the passengers on the rubber dinghy he arrived on for two hours, two hours that might have made the difference between life and death for him. His mother was pushed back to Turkey, and only reunited with her husband in the camp here two days ago, finally able to mourn their child together. The lack of safe passage, the intensification of illegal pushbacks and the criminalisation of humanitarian and other responders are translating into death after death, and families, seeking lives of safety and dignity, are left to grieve their loved ones in lands of little refuge.”
Our thoughts are with his parents and with all survivors.
In memory of Samuel from Sierra Leone.
We will never forget him!
Twitter Alarm Phone:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1603440288688738304
Twitter Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF):
https://twitter.com/MSF_Sea/status/1604153141141700609
Summary on infomigrants.net:
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/45495/small-child-found-dead-after-migrant-shipwreck-off-lesbos
Greek Coast Guard explains road block against MSF with the excuse of the source of the alert being Alarm Phone, which is under investigation:
https://www.stonisi.gr/post/49170/apanthsh-ths-astynomias-sthn-kataggelia-twn-giatrwn-xwris-synora
Statement Alarm Phone on 20.12.2022:
https://alarmphone.org/en/2022/12/20/another-attempt-to-cover-up-the-real-crimes
Turkish Coastguard:
https://www.sg.gov.tr/izmir-aciklarinda-16-duzensiz-gocmen-kurtarilmistir-19-12-22-
Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of December 2022
Case name: 2022_12_12-Eastern Med - 1090
Situation: 2-month-old baby died and mother pushed back after arrival on Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Mediterranean / Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:
On 16 December 2022, we were alerted by relatives about a group of approx. 40 people who arrived in the southern Fara area of Gera Bay on Lesvos. Among them was a pregnant woman who was in need of medical help.
At 7:25 CET, we alerted Greek authorities and several NGOs by email. We informed them that the people were in need of medical assistance and international protection.
We then lost contact to the group for several hours. In the evening of the same day, we received the information that only 32 people were found by Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), while the remaining 18 people were missing. The people that were found told MSF that the other 18 people were pushed back to Turkey. Tragically, one baby was reported dead - the father was among the group that was found on Lesvos but the mother was among the people who were pushed back.
At 21:32 CET, we called the Turkish Coast Guard and asked if they found 18 people in the area of Lesvos. They reported an incident east of Lesvos island, where they rescued 16 people (7 women, 9 men) on a life raft at 14:30h local time. According to the information given to us, the people said they were on the island and have been forced into life rafts by Greek officers.
The next day, we find the following article in Greek media reporting about the incident:
"A dead two-month-old infant is the toll from yesterday's shipwreck in Fara, while another 11-month-old baby has been missing at sea since last week. At least two Coast Guard search and rescue operations were carried out after two incidents, but they were kept secret as neither yesterday's operation nor that of last Friday were made public by the Coast Guard Press Office. On Thursday night in Lesvos, strong southern winds were blowing and a boat with about 50 people on board crashed into the rocks in the area near Fara beach. Thirty-four refugees were transported to Mytilene yesterday, Friday, including the father of the baby, who was injured in the shipwreck. The infant was evacuated to the Vostaneio Hospital where he was pronounced dead.”
(See: https://www.politikalesvos.gr/ena-vrefos-nekro-ki-ena-akomi-agnoeitai-se-dyo-quot-epicheiriseis-quot-mesa-se-liges-meres/)
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published a statement on Twitter (see below), stating that they were blocked for 2 hours in a road-block of the police, which resulted in the delay of medical assistance for the baby that later died in the hospital of Mytilene.
In reaction to the incident, the Greek police published a press release attributing their presence and the blocking of medical assistance to a criminal investigation opened against the Alarm Phone in 2020.
On 20 December 2022, we published a statement, in which we emphasized that the real crimes are the delay in medical assistance and we raised the question on the whereabouts of the mother of the child:
“We can only repeat: the real crimes are pushbacks and human rights violations carried out by the Greek government and are funded and supported by the European Union!
The Hellenic Police’s press release is a desperate attempt to cover up their crime.
Access to the people in distress was needlessly blocked.
The baby’s mother is reported missing. Is it possible that she was among those who were found on a life-raft drifting in Turkish waters some hours after the incident?
How many more lives have to get lost until this murderous policy of deterrence along EU borders ends?”
In January, we received a message about the burial of 2-month-old Samuel on Lesvos:
"Yesterday, in another cemetery on the island, the tiny body of 2-month old Samuel, from Sierra Leone was buried. In December, MSF medics were denied access to the passengers on the rubber dinghy he arrived on for two hours, two hours that might have made the difference between life and death for him. His mother was pushed back to Turkey, and only reunited with her husband in the camp here two days ago, finally able to mourn their child together. The lack of safe passage, the intensification of illegal pushbacks and the criminalisation of humanitarian and other responders are translating into death after death, and families, seeking lives of safety and dignity, are left to grieve their loved ones in lands of little refuge.”
Our thoughts are with his parents and with all survivors.
In memory of Samuel from Sierra Leone.
We will never forget him!
Twitter Alarm Phone:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1603440288688738304
Twitter Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF):
https://twitter.com/MSF_Sea/status/1604153141141700609
Summary on infomigrants.net:
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/45495/small-child-found-dead-after-migrant-shipwreck-off-lesbos
Greek Coast Guard explains road block against MSF with the excuse of the source of the alert being Alarm Phone, which is under investigation:
https://www.stonisi.gr/post/49170/apanthsh-ths-astynomias-sthn-kataggelia-twn-giatrwn-xwris-synora
Statement Alarm Phone on 20.12.2022:
https://alarmphone.org/en/2022/12/20/another-attempt-to-cover-up-the-real-crimes
Turkish Coastguard:
https://www.sg.gov.tr/izmir-aciklarinda-16-duzensiz-gocmen-kurtarilmistir-19-12-22-
Last update: 18:12 Nov 04, 2023
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