On Thursday February 29, at 18.30, Aegean Boat Report were contacted by a group of 18 people, 15 adults and 3 children, from Afghanistan and Palestine, who had arrived on the Greek island of Farmakonisi.
The group was scared, and asked for assistance so that they could be taken to the nearest port of safety, provided with food, water and medicine attention, and given the opportunity to apply for asylum in accordance with international law.
The problem was that they had by accident or deliberately, it’s difficult to say, arrived on a desert island, and the only people present were military personnel from the base on the island, and the only way off this island was to inform Greek authorities.
Farmakonisi is a small uninhabited Greek island in the Dodecanese, present only a Greek military garrison.
The group provided us with pictures, videos and geolocation data, it shows without a doubt that they are on Farmakonisi.
We advised that people from the group should to go to the military station and make their presence known, not because it’s a safe solution, it’s definitely not, but because it’s the only solution on this island, and that they first contacted 112 and informed that they were on the island.
As far as they informed us, they refused to go to the military base on the island, and that they instead had contacted 112 and informed of their situation.
At 04.20 a.m. on Friday morning, we lost all contact with the group, we assumed that the group had been found by the military personnel on the island, and that they had been ordered to turn off their phones.
We hoped that the group had been found and transported to the camp on Leros, as the group who arrived the day before them. Unfortunately no people from Farmakonisi had been registered in the camp on Leros on Friday.
On Friday at 11.55 a.m. Turkish coast guard reported to have found 18 people, 3 of them small children, adrift in a life raft outside the Menderes district, north east of Samos, almost 50 miles from Farmakonisi.
When we compare pictures and videos taken on Farmakonisi, with footage taken by the Turkish coast guard when they were found, there is absolutely no doubt, it’s the same group.
The group had been arrested by military personnel on Farmakonisi, and incarcerated in a shed surrounded by a barb wire fence close to the pier on the island. The group was thoroughly searched, all their belongings were taken away from them, phones, money, papers and bags.
They stayed locked up until sunrise, when a boat from the Greek Coast Guard arrived, onboard masked men carrying guns and batons. The boat was described as gray and white, with blue stripes in the front.
After another thorough search they were taken onboard the coast guard vessel, and covered by a big plastic tarpaulin. They were ordered to sit under the tarpaulin and under no circumstances tru to look out. If they moved or spoke, the masked men would hit them with a stick, shouting “shut the fuck up” and “get your ass down”, people were terrified.
After several hours the boat stopped and everyone was forced into what they described as a “rubber ring”, what they refer to is a life raft, where the orange protective cover has been removed, only the black rubber tubes left.
The cover has been removed because the Greek manufacturer of these life rafts, Lalizas from Piraeus, don’t want their logo to be visible in connection with these criminal activities, not all PR is good PR, especially when you are marketing your products as “life saving equipment”, and not tools of illegal deportation that could potentially kill you.
The cover of the life rafts are now always removed, to protect the commercial interests of a Greek multimillion company, without any regard to the safety of people placed in these life rafts. Without the orang cover, the life saving capability of these rafts are drastically reduced, one wave is enough to fill it up and capsize it, drowning everyone inside. It’s quite clear the Greek commercial interests are more important than saving people lives, even for Lalizas.
The group was transported almost 50 miles on a Greek Coast Guard vessel, in brought daylight, so that they could illegally deport them.
This shows the determination and willingness of the Greek authorities, to do almost anything to stop people from applying for international protection in Greece, violating international laws and human rights seems to be of no concern for the Greek authorities.
This isn’t something new, these illegal pushbacks have been going on for years in the Aegean Sea, it’s extremely well documented by international human rights organizations, NGO’s, international media and EU bodies, everyone knows what is going on and who is responsible.
In a normal decent world this would not have been allowed to continue, but in today’s Europe it seems that we are willing to sacrifice our values, laws and principles in the name of border protection. Not only is the European Commission, who are there to protect the rule of law in Europe, looking the other way, they are actively supporting and encouraging countries like Greece to continue, by financing their operations and deploying more Frontex resources.
If a EU citizen rounded up a group of random people at gunpoint, strip searched and beat them up, stole all their belongings, handcuffed them with plastic ties, took them on a boat out to sea, forced them into a life raft and left them helplessly drifting. This person would be facing decades behind bars if caught, most likely also had to go through a long psychological evaluation, a person capable of such atrocities is most likely not in the right place mentally.
What Greek authorities are doing in the Aegean Sea is most definitely illegal, no question about it. Instead of putting those responsible behind bars and question their sanity, we are applauding them, paying them handsomely for their efforts, and giving them medals for a job well done, I don’t know who is the most insane, them or us..
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