Author Archives: Tommy Olsen

Press Release We were originally undecided whether or not to respond to the latest allegations made against us, three other NGOs and six individuals two days ago (Monday 19 July 2021). But having been named as an organisation in yesterday’s Kathimerini – a decision that newspaper would only have made having been given our nameContinue reading

Ten men, women and children, including a new-born baby, were held at gunpoint and stripped of their possessions by Greek police, before being forced into an engineless rubber boat and set adrift on the Aegean Sea, in the Greek government’s latest clear violation of international law and decent human behaviour. On 4 July, Aegean BoatContinue reading “Greek Coast Guard Abandons New-Born Baby At Sea”

On June 26 Aegean Boat Report published a report on 61 people that was stranded on the small rocky island of Fragkos, south west of Lipsi. What happened to this group have until now been somewhat unclear, but we assumed that they had been illegally returned to Turkey by the Hellenic coast guard, no arrivalsContinue reading ““I Reject The Pushbac Concept””

The video you are about to watch is of an illegal pushback carried out by the Greek coastguard. It is not a ‘one-off’. It did not take place six, twelve or eighteen months ago, and now things are better. It was just one of 491 incidents since March 2020, in which 14,720 men, women andContinue reading “Human Rights in Europe are at a crossroads”

4 of June at 02.00 a boat carrying 44 people, many of them very small children, started out from Sazli, Turkey, heading towards Lesvos north. The trip lasted for five hours, people onboard was afraid that the Greek coast guard would find them at sea and push them back, especially after first light, but luckilyContinue reading “Pushback Nr. 460”

On May 28, at around 6am, a boat that was reported to have been carrying 54 people, 37 adults and 17 children, landed north of Panagiouda, Lesvos south around 06.00. It later became clear that in fact the boat had been carrying 49 people. Immediately after arrival, they split into two groups and hid inContinue reading “Pushback Nr. 451”

In the early hours of Sunday 16 May, a rubber boat set out from Cumhuriyet, Seferihisar, Turkey, carrying 32 people, nine children, seven women and 16 men. After several hours at sea, they approached the island of Samos. In the videos they sent us, we can clearly see Samos in the background. While approaching theContinue reading “The illegal Practice Continues”

At 9am on 26 April, a boat carrying 53 people landed on Agios Theodorous beach, east of Korakas, in north Lesvos. Thirty-five of the 53 travelling people were reported to be children. The group contacted Aegean Boat Report so their arrival could be documented. They reported no medical needs, and because of this and theContinue reading “Fifty-three more men, women and children have been lied to, beaten and expelled from Greece by uniformed police officers who told them they would be taken for COVID testing and quarantine.”

Fifty-one people on a boat north east of Korakas, Lesvos north were stopped by the Greek coastguard and towed from Greek waters on 14 April. Some of the people aboard called Aegean Boat Report at 7.30am. They were screaming on the phone, begging for help. The videos and pictures they sent us clearly showed thatContinue reading “Pushbacks is no longer even the “new normal”: it is just “normal””