In the morning of Thursday May 1, a boat in distress north of Samos, inside Greek territory waters, contacted Aegean Boat Report and asked for assistance.
They explained that they were on the way to Samos, but were brutally stopped by a vessel from the Greek coast guard. Masked men on the coast guard vessel had destroyed the engine by using long sticks with hooks, afterwards they were left drifting in the middle of the sea.
The group informed us that their rubber boat had been drifting for hours and was slowly taking in water, they feared drowning or that their rubber boat Greek coast guard would push them back to Turkey.
Onboard the drifting boat was 44 people, 22 of them small children, the majority of the passengers were from Afghanistan.
People onboard told us they already had called 112 and informed of their situation, and had been told that local rescue assets would be informed. The only problem, those local rescue assets were already on location, and had no intention of rescuing them, they were actually the reason for them needing rescue in the first place.
The vessel seen in the videos, taken by the distressed group has been identified as a Lambro 57 coastal patrol boat, belonging to the Greek coast guard. Several of these vessels are stationed on Samos.
When boats are in distress in the border area, we routinely inform the coast guard on both sides of the border. The Turkish coast guard could inform us that the boat was inside Greek territory waters, but they were monitoring the situation in case something happened.
The Greek coast guard were not similarly cooperative, and was more interested in information about the one calling, than the emergency case we tried to inform them about. It took us 19 minutes from first call, until they agreed to take the information. That involved them hanging up the phone two times, and one time pretending not to understand English. In comparison the call to their Turkish counterparts took 37 seconds.
They told us that they had no information on current cases in the area, but they would look into it. When we informed them that we knew that the coast guard was already on location, since we had received videos from the drifting boat, the man mending the phone at the port police office on Samos, got very loud and angry, that resulted in him hanged up the phone for the third time.
If this had been a rare one time occurrence, when contacting the Greek coast guard, we could have written it off as a local coast guard officer just in a bad mood, unfortunately this is more like the rule than the exception. Whenever we are in contact with the Greek coast guard to inform them on distress cases at sea in Greek waters, we are usually met with a very hostile attitude. They show total lack of professionalism, and seem to be totally indifferent about the potential loss of human lives in their waters, as long as the people in question are refugees.
We had contact with the boat for almost three hours, in this time the boat was drifting with the current, steadily south west, deeper inside Greek territory waters. When realising this miscalculation, the coast guard had to do something, because the boat was drifting towards Samos, and not towards Turkish waters.
At 10 am local time, people onboard the drifting boat informed us that the Greek coast guard vessel quickly moved closer, “they are rescuing us now” they told us, people seemed skeptical but relieved that their ordeal was finally over, 12 minutes later we lost all contact on all phones from the boat.
One of the phones had shared live location on WhatsApp, and we could follow their movements towards Cape Prason on Samos for almost one hour, that could indicate a rescue and not a pushback, unfortunately this was not the case.
We searched for information about the group for hours, but couldn’t find anything about the coast guard on Samos bringing in people to port. The simple explanation became clear many hours later, when we were informed that the Turkish coast guard had located and rescued 44 people, amongst them 22 children, from two life rafts drifting north west of Didim, Turkey, over 40 miles south east of Samos.
While we had contact with the group, they shared pictures and videos that later became very important in proving, not only what happened to them, but also who were responsible.
When comparing pictures and videos taken onboard the drifting rubber boat, with the footage taken by the Turkish coast guard while rescuing them, there is absolutely no doubt, they are the same group.
The Turkish coast guard could inform us, that they had received an email from their Greek counterparts, informing them of people drifting in their sector, and a rescue operation had been initiated.
Watching the videos taken onboard the drifting boat, we could see that people had bags with them, when found drifting by the Turkish coast guard, nobody had any belongings. Further more, those few who actually had life jackets while onboard the drifting boat, had non when found in the life rafts.
The normal practice by the Greek coast guard, that has been thoroughly documented for years, is that whenever people are pushed back in these life rafts, the coast guard robes them of all belongings, bags, phones, money and other valuables, even life jackets, that could potentially save their lives if something goes wrong.
The group was transported over 40 miles in a Greek coast guard vessel, before being forced into two life rafts and left helplessly drifting in the middle of the sea, this shows Greek efforts and determination to stop people from reaching the Greek islands, by all means possible, even if this means killing people in the process.
When looking at official arrival data published by Greek authorities, no arrivals were registered on Samos on May 1, nor the days that followed.
We were also contacted by relatives of people in the drifting boat, who tried their best to provide some assistance to their family members in distress at sea.
For a week they haven’t been able to locate them in Turkey, from pictures they sent we can confirm that they were amongst those pushed back by Greek authorities outside Samos, and later found by the Turkish coast guard.
What usually happens, especially to Afghans, when picked up by Turkish authorities, after a failed attempt to reach Europe, is that they are taken to a removal centres, awaiting transportation to the Iranian border, where they will be deported back to Afghanistan through Iran. These deportation centre’s in Turkey are fully funded by the European Union.
A few days ago, The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, published a memorandum on migration and border control in Greece, following his visit to the country from 3 to 7 February 2025.
The report is as clear as it could be, when it comes to the systematic human rights abuses at Greek borders in relation to pushbacks, similar to other reports by EU bodies on the subject over the last five years.
It didn’t take long for the Greek authorities to respond, and their reply didn’t shock anyone, it was a textbook answer. In all cases related to criticism towards the Greek authorities, throughout modern history, they have never ever admitted any wrongdoing, even when it’s staring them straight in the face, clear as day, they continue to deny, mislead and point the finger elsewhere.
The Minister of Migration and Asylum, Mavroudis Voridis, responded to the damming report by referring to what they on paper have put in place to make sure fundamental rights are protected in Greece. That’s great, if it hadn’t been for the overwhelming amount of evidence painting a very different picture of the situation over the last five years, something the minister is painfully aware of, nevertheless, he is desperately trying to mislead the general public in this futile attempt.
But it didn’t end there, even the Greek Supreme Court prosecutor’s categorically denied that systematic pushbacks are taking place at the Greek borders, once again raising grave concerns regarding the independence of the Greek judiciary, and their involvement in covering up Greek authorities human rights violations.
To put things in perspective, in the last five years, under the rule of “Nea Democratia”, we have registtered 3.388 pushback cases in the Aegean Sea, performed by the Hellenic coast guard, involving 93.072 men, women and children. 1.099 of these cases was performed by using rescue equipment/life rafts, 29.216 people was left drifting in 1.685 life rafts in the Aegean Sea.
That systematic human rights abuses is taking place in Greece on a daily basis, there is no longer any doubt, the overwhelming amount of evidence makes it impossible to come to a different conclusion. Nevertheless, no matter how much evidence is put on the table, the European Commission and Frontex continues to support Greece, they are even funding Greece, so that they can continue killing men, women and children at it’s borders, in the name of the “European way of life” and “border management”.
The pressure is building up against the Greek authorities, and their blatant disregard for fundamental rights. One would expect that they would tune down their systemic violations at their borders, at least temporarily, until the storm blows over, so why aren’t they?
The answer is very simple, they have never been held accountable, all treats have been empty words, no action has ever been taken by the European Commission nor Frontex against Greece for their systematic human rights violations, in fact, they are being rewarded by an endless stream of EU taxpayers money to continue, no strings attached, zero accountability.
Since the head of Frontex, Hand Leijtens took office two years ago, we have heard him “consider” taking action against Greece many times, due to well documented systemic human rights abuses. He has never concluded that this has been necessary, and always found a good excuse not to.
Hundreds of violent and illegal pushbacks have been documented by EU bodies, journalists, organizations, NGO’s, and even by Frontex themselves, throughout Serious Incident Reports. The amount of evidence stacking up against the Greek authorities is overwhelming, but still not serious enough for Hans Leijtens to take action, it remains to be seen if it ever will be.