On the night of Friday 28 June, Aegean Boat Report published an emergency alert regarding a group that had arrived on the uninhabited Greek island of Vatos, north east of Chios, and was in imminent danger of being pushed back by Greek authorities.
We immediately published about this group to try to draw attention to it, so that it would have at least a fighting chance. Sometimes, publicity can persuade Greek authorities to do the right thing. This, unfortunately, was not one of those.
According to the group, the smuggler they had paid was supposed to take them to Chios, but instead left them on Vatos.
The Greek authorities were informed of their presence, and a Lambro 57 coastal patrol vessel belonging to the coast guard on Chios was observed in a small bay south east on the island, closing in on the area where the group was located.
The boat observed the group for 30 minutes before it apparently left.
The following day, Alarmphone also published about the group on Vatos, and reported that when they spoke to the coast guard, they were informed that they wouldn’t launch a rescue operation due to bad weather.
This was not true.
The Coastguard was already on the island.
Before we lost contact with the group, they told us that two men approached them, telling them: “Don’t worry, we will take you to camp, don’t worry we will help you, we can take you in our private boat to Chios”.
Not everyone understood what the men said, and many were sceptical, but Everyone was wet and cold, the children were crying, and so they had no option but to trust them. Equally, both men were wearing civilian clothes and not masks, so they decided to go with them.
Shortly after 21.00 all phones went offline, and we understood that something was about to happen.
The last message received was a picture of a man, in civilian clothes, t-shirt, shorts, sunglasses and a small bag strapped over his chest, with the text: “This is one of the men who want us to go with them”.
We didn’t quite understand who this man was at first, but found it a bit unlikely that two ‘Greek tourists’ with a boat, willing to help stranded refugees, would just happen to be walking around on this deserted island at night.
Through our contacts, we searched for someone who might have seen this man on Chios.
We were told that he was a member of the ‘special troops’ stationed on Chios, and operated on the coast guard vessels, tasked to handle “special operations”, like pushbacks, hunting for refugees, etc.
We are actually not shocked, we have seen and heard of these “special troops” for years. They often wear civilian clothes and claim to be UNHCR or MSF, only there to help. But they are more commonly behind black masks, using extreme violence in their efforts to push people back.
This time, one was caught on camera, directly linking him to a serious crime taking place on European soil: the kidnapping of 20 people, detaining them arbitrarily, exposing them to inhuman and degrading treatment and endangering their lives.
Just to be clear, we will make all original material, pictures, videos, voice messages and geolocation data, available for journalists, Greek and European independent investigators, legal teams with the intent to file charges, upon official requests to Aegean Boat Report.
All contact with the group on multiple phones was lost, and Greek authorities hadn’t located anyone on Vatos, at least officially.
Looking at registration numbers on Chios, only two people were officially registered as arriving in the following days.
On Saturday afternoon, 29 June, the following day, the Turkish coast guard found and rescued a group of 20 people, nine of them children, who were stranded on the Turkish island of Karaada, six kilometers from Vatos.
From pictures published by the Turkish coast guard, it’s clear that it’s the same group, who had arrived on Vatos the previous night and contacted among others, Aegean Boat Report.
Alarmphone also confirmed that the group had been pushed back in a life raft by Greek authorities, and left helplessly drifting in the sea.
The two men who approached the group obviously worked in cooperation with the coast guard, tricking the group to believe they would help them, so that they came willingly, walking straight into the lion’s mouth.
Instead of helping the Afghan refugees, they took them to the Greek Coast Guard vessel, transported them back out to sea, and forced them into an engineless raft, abandoning them at sea.
How they were treated while in captivity we don’t know, but from previous similar cases, we know that the use of extreme violence isn’t uncommon, and we have no reason to assume this group was treated very differently.
The group drifted towards the island of Karaada, and managed to get ashore by their own means.
Luckily, a Turkish coast guard boat on patrol eventually spotted them, and at 17.00, they were rescued from the island.
They had no means to call for help, because the Greek Coast Guard had taken all their phones and thrown them into the sea.
We have not been able to reconnect with anyone from the group, but routinely, all Afghans who try to flee Turkey towards Europe, are first taken to Removal centres financed by the EU, then transported across Turkey to camps close to the Iranian border.
We have previously published about Afghan people being being deported by Turkish authorities: thousands of people, men, women and children are being transported through Iran, back to Afghanistan and Taliban, where many will be imprisoned, tortured and killed for leaving the country.
Anyone claiming that Afghanistan, ranked as the most dangerous country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index, for the sixth year in a row, is safe for anyone, has lost their grip on reality.
To put it into perspective, Ukraine, in full-blown war, is ranked as the world’s seventh most dangerous country. Europe has given almost six million Ukrainian refugees temporary protection, while we are trying our utmost to force Afghans out of Europe, by all means possible.
Greek authorities, central to this process because they are illegally forcing Afghans into Turkiye, are not only supported by EU and Frontex, but also financed by EU and the European Commission.
Everyone, including EU politicians, knows perfectly well what is going on in Greece: the evidence is overwhelming.
But the European Commission has taken no action to stop these widespread, systematic human rights violations on European soil.
It’s time for Frontex to cease all activities in Greece, and for the European Commission to start infringement proceedings to try to reinstate the rule of law in Greece.
Tens of thousands of vulnerable men, women and children have been pushed back by Greek Authorities in the Aegean Sea the last four years, blessed and funded by EU and the European Commission. Below is 15 of them from the group on Vatos, deemed unwanted in Europe, soon to be deported back to Afghanistan, to an uncertain future in the hands of Taliban.
