Monday August 15 a group of 9 people contacted Aegean Boat Report for assistance, after they had arrived on Leros the previous day.
The group sent pictures from their hideout on Leros, in an old abandoned building in a remote area of the island. Most likely locals on Leros could recognize the building from the pictures.
To arrive in Europe and have to hide from authorities in fear of being beaten and left drifting in life rafts, sounds crazy for most of us, Europe is more civilized than that, well it’s not, not in Greece anyway.
Unfortunately contact was lost with the group before we were able to provide any assistance, and the small group of people magically disappeared from Leros.
We assumed that the group had been found by Greek authorities, and removed from the island as so many before them, and a few days later this was confirmed.
On August 16, at 05.50, a life rafts was found drifting outside Didim, Turkey, carrying 9 people.
When we compare pictures sent from the group on Leros, to the pictures and videos from when the Turkish coast guard found them drifting outside Didim, there isn’t much doubt, it’s the same group.
A video testimony on what happened was recorded by Turkish authorities after they had been taken to port, her he describes that they took all their belongings, and even beat them.
We don’t know much about this group, and we probably never will, but we can at least publish their story, to show what happened to them by the hand of the Greek authorities, we at least ow them that much.
40.000 people have been pushed back in the Aegean Sea alone by Greek authorities, many left drifting in life rafts after being arrested on Greek islands. It’s a direct violation of international laws and human rights, so far nothing has been done by the European Commission to stop these crimes against humanity.