On Thursday, 28 August, at 20:30, Aegean Boat Report was informed about a sailboat in distress approximately 6.3 nautical miles southeast of the Greek island of Tilos.
According to the people onboard, 77 individuals, including 21 small children, were crammed onto the heavily overloaded vessel. The sailboat was drifting and in urgent need of rescue.
Rescue services were immediately informed, and two vessels from the Greek Coast Guard arrived on the scene. Shortly after their arrival, all communication with the people onboard was lost.
From the GPS position sent by the passengers, the sailboat was deep inside Greek territorial waters, between the Greek islands of Tilos and Rhodes, when the distress call went out.
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Greek Coast Guard Denies Any Involvement
Strangely, the Greek authorities claim to have no recollection of any rescue operation in this area at that time and deny any responsibility for what happened to the group.
“Onboard are mostly women and children under the age of 15, many are sick, one woman with severe heart problems.”
“The coast guard has stopped us, we don’t know what to do, not sure exactly where we are.”
This denial stands in sharp contrast to eyewitness accounts, GPS data, and video evidence. For years, Greek authorities have been accused of illegally pushing back thousands of people from Greek waters in the Aegean Sea — a practice repeatedly condemned by the UN, European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and numerous humanitarian organisations.
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A Dangerous and Illegal Operation
Evidence strongly suggests that the Greek Coast Guard took control of the overloaded sailboat and towed it for several hours during the night — not to a place of safety, but away from Greek waters and into Turkish waters, forcing the passengers back and denying them the right to seek asylum.
The boat carried five times more people than its safe capacity, no life jackets, and included 21 small children. Towing such a vessel is extremely dangerous and can easily lead to capsizing and mass casualties.
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Rescued in Turkish Waters
At 03:15 on Friday, the Turkish Coast Guard located and rescued all 77 people, including 21 children, from the same overloaded sailboat, now drifting inside Turkish waters near Datça.
Despite clear evidence of a pushback, the Turkish Coast Guard officially registered the incident as an “engine failure” — a practice that has become increasingly common over the last year as part of a political agreement between Greece and Turkey aimed at reducing tensions in the Aegean.
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Covering Up Crimes at Sea
For over a year, Turkish authorities have deliberately mislabelled cases of forced returns as technical failures to shield Greek authorities from accountability and maintain a fragile diplomatic balance.
However, video footage taken onboard the sailboat clearly shows the searchlights of a Greek Coast Guard vessel. When comparing images from the passengers’ phones with those released by the Turkish Coast Guard after the rescue, there is no doubt this was the same group.
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International Law and Human Rights Obligations
Under international maritime law, specifically the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention), all coastal states — including Greece and Turkey — have a clear legal obligation to:
• Respond immediately to any distress call at sea
• Rescue people in danger regardless of their nationality or legal status
• Disembark survivors at the nearest place of safety
Furthermore, under international human rights law, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights, pushbacks are strictly prohibited.
Article 33 of the Refugee Convention explicitly enshrines the principle of non-refoulement, meaning that no one may be returned to a country where their life or freedom could be at risk.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled multiple times that collective expulsions at sea — like this incident — violate fundamental rights and amount to serious breaches of international law.
By towing the sailboat back into Turkish waters, Greek authorities denied these 77 people their right to seek asylum, put their lives at extreme risk, and violated both EU and international legal obligations.
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A Systematic Practice
This case is not an isolated incident. Aegean Boat Report has documented hundreds of similar pushbacks in recent years involving tens of thousands of people.
Each case represents not just a human tragedy, but also a direct attack on international law, European values, and the fundamental rights of people seeking safety.