In the early hours of July 8, a group of 27 people arrived on the Greek island of Inousses, north east of Chios.
The group contacted several organizations to try to get assistance, amongst them Alarmphone and Aegean Boat Report.
First contact was at 05.30, they told us that everyone had managed to get safely on land, and that they needed help to be taken to a camp and apply for asylum.
The group first confirmed their presence on the island by sending their location and live location on Whatsapp. Later they also provided pictures and videos, together with a list of the 27 people who had arrived, full name, age and gender in English and Farsi.
According to Alarmphone, they informed local authorities of the presence of 27 people on Inousses, and their intention to apply for asylum in Greece, in an email sent at 06.45.
The group started walking towards a small chapel to find shelter from the sun and the heat, on their way they rested next to the road in a dried out river drainage. Her they took some pictures and a video that was sent to Aegean Boat Report, time stamp shows time to be 06.55.
This was the last we heard from the group.
According to Alarmphone, the group, while walking towards the chapel, had encountered local police, and sent a message that said “We are with the local police, do we have to be afraid?”, this was the last anyone heard from the group.
What happened next in this case we unfortunately have no details about, but from previous similar cases, we know that people are being strip searched, robbed and beaten, all while being threatened at gunpoint, before they are forced back to sea on a coast guard vessel.
During the day we several times contacted local police and coast guard to try to find out if the group had been found and rescued, strangled enough, even do they had been informed by email, they had no knowledge of anything happening in this area…
We later learned that nobody was taken to the camp on chios and registered this day, this is confirmed by official information published by the ministry.
The following morning, over 24 hours after we lost contact with the group while on Oinousses, Turkish coast guard reported that they had initiated a rescue operation on Karaada island, Çesme.
17 people had managed to get to land by their own means, one person was rescued by a local fishing vessel, while the bodies of 8 people had been found in the sea.
Due to the close proximity to Inousses, and the number of people involved, we understood that this could be the same group that we had been in contact with on Inousses. When we received the footage from the rescue operation, we no longer had any doubt, it’s without a doubt the same group.
Of the 27 people that arrived on Inousses on July 8, there were 17 adults, 4 minors and 6 children, mostly Afghans, but also some Palestinians and Iraqis.
8 of the people in this video was killed by the Greek coast guard in this brutal pushback, 5 Afghans, 2 Palestinians and a woman from Iraq, we have not been able to determine if there were any children amongst the dead.
Survivors told that they had been captured on the island by Greek police, all belongings stolen, taken back out to sea in a grey coast guard vessel and forced into a life raft close to the Turkish island of Karaada.
They had managed to paddle with their hands and reach the island, but on their way in towards the rocky shore, the fragile rubber raft hit some rocks and deflated, and people ended up in the sea, those who couldn’t swim drowned.
Greece seems to have a “license to kill” issued by the European Commission in the name of border protection. As long as vulnerable men, women and children are stopped in reaching European territory, by any means possible, killing thousands doesn’t seem to be of any concern.
The Pylos shipwreck last year, where Greek authorities killed over 650 people, amongst them over 100 children, in a failed pushback attempt, has so far not led to any reaction from the commission, no independent investigation, no infringement proceedings against Greece, it’s as it didn’t happen.
While more and more people are being killed at our borders, the European Commission, instead of trying to stop these barbaric killings, continues to poor money into these operations, no questions asked, as long as the job gets done.
I have many times asked “How many more men, women and children must be killed by Greek authorities before the European Commission takes action?”. I’m beginning to think that such number doesen’t exist, there is no limit, as long as the “right people” are being killed, nothing else matters.
This is nothing less than EU-sanctioned killings, and we are more than happy to look the other way, pretending nothing is happening.
Our deepest condolences goes out to those who lost loved ones, family and friends.
To the Greek authorities we say this, we will never forgive, never forget!