Author Archives: Tommy Olsen

A boat carrying 43people, 16 of them small children, was traveling from Ayvalik, Turkey toward Tsonia, Lesvos north at first light this morning, when they were stopped by a vessel from the Greek coast guard and pushed back to Turkish waters. The boat was dangerously overloaded, and should not have been at sea at all,Continue reading “16 Children Pushed Back Outside Lesvos By Greek Coast Guard”

Last week, Thursday October 20, we published a short report on Facebook about a group of 22 people who had arrived west of Korakas, Lesvos north. Today, MSF published a press release about this case, explaining that they had found several people from this group handcuffed and injured after being beaten by 7-8 men. InContinue reading “MSF found refugees beaten and handcuffed on the Greek island of Lesvos”

In the early hours of October 1, a rubber boat carrying 43 afghans, 15 of them small children, set out from Cumhuriyet, Dikili, Turkey, destination Lesvos. At first light the boat was closing in on Lesvos, but deep inside Greek waters they were stopped by a vessel from the Greek coast guard, at gunpoint theyContinue reading “Children Phused Back at Gunpoint by Greek Authorities”

Yesterday the right-wing pro government tv channel Skai, who eagerly supports the ruling government, made yet another blunder. An “exclusive” video was published, supposedly proving the well known rhetoric by Greek authorities on instrumentalization of refugees by Turkish authorities, but also trying to incriminate NGOs that supposedly had helped refugees to cross the border. TheContinue reading “An epic blunder”

Aegean Boat Report have been documenting pushbacks and from the Aegean Sea and the Greek Aegean islands for years, performed by Greek authorities. For this we have been frequently targeted, unfounded investigations initiated by authorities have been “leaked” to Greek press, a scare tactic to get us to back off. The Greek Migration Minister NotisContinue reading “There is no longer any doubt”

We are perturbed and annoyed to once again be the subject of mischievous and entirely untrue claims from the Greek Minister of Migration Notis Mitarachis. We feel we must state publicly that his comments about Aegean Boat Report, specifically the claim that we ‘work with’ and ‘help’ Turkish ‘people traffickers’ and the claim that weContinue reading “Statement”

Today the Greek minister of migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarachi, once again tried to manipulate the truth on Twitter, not very successfully but nevertheless he tried. It’s not the first time he has blatantly lied and published fake news on social media, but this time his efforts wasn’t very successful, at least if you areContinue reading “Stupid is what stupid does..”

Lebanese people making the dangerous journey from Lebanon across the Mediterranean in pursuit of safety and a better life should not come as a surprise to the governments and people of the West. The world has turned a blind eye to a country which is in a harrowing situation and amidst a dangerous crisis. TwoContinue reading “Lebanon, The Forgotten Crises”

This morning at 05.30 a group of 17 people contacted Aegean Boat Report from the small Greek island of Marmaras, west of Simi. They had arrived on the island before first light, in the dark they believed that they had arrived on Simi. After first light they understood that they had landed on a smallContinue reading “Pushback Nr. 1630”

Friday September 2, Aegean Boat Report published about a sailboat carrying 55 people, 9 women, 1 child and 45 men, that was drifting 27 km south east of Kythira. The boat was drifting due to lack of fuel, the driver of the boat abandoned them during the night, there were nobody onboard that was trainedContinue reading “Just Another Pushback”