01/09 two people pushed back out of a Greek hospital

02.09.2021 / 21:10 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –of 1st of September 2021

Case name: 20210901-AEG815

Situation: two people injured in Greece near the border to Turkey, brought to a hospital, pushed back

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On the 1st of September at 11:22 CEST we were informed about two people in Greece, close to the Turkish landborder, one of them was severely injured. We asked them to call the ambulance themselves. They went in an ambulance to the hospital in Komotini. We sent an email with the names, nationalities and birthdates of the men as well as their claim for asylum to the Greek authorities.At 18:08 CEST we got the information that the police forced the two men into a red and green truck heading east towards Turkey. The next day we investigated on what has happened by calling the hosptital. There they told us that the injured men was briefly treated by an orthopaedic, ut then the two men had been taken out of the hospital by police officers. We called the closest Border Guard Station, wich is Sapes, but there they claimed to not know anything. So we have to assume that the two men were illegally pushed back out of the hospital.

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