Author Archives: Tommy Olsen

While media pressure is building up against Greek authorities systematic and widespread human rights violations in the Aegean, they continue to leave vulnerable men, women and children helpless drifting in life rafts in the middle of the sea. In the last days, 10 life rafts, carrying 180 people, mostly Afghan nationals, and 60 of themContinue reading “Greek Cost Guard Threw 14 Children Into Life Rafts And Abandoned Them At Sea”

On March 23 2020, 31 people were found drifting in a life raft outside the Greek island of Simi, Dodecanese, Greece. People onboard testified that they had been held captive for two days on the island by Greek authorities, before taken back out to sea and abandoned in a life raft. This was the firstContinue reading “Greece And The EU: Disregard For The Law, And Human Lives”

The European Court of Human Rights will tomorrow, June 4, hear two cases against the Greek government for illegally forcing people back to Turkiye. It is the first time the Court will hear cases against pushbacks carried out by the Greek government, and Aegean Boat Report has played a central role in helping to bringContinue reading “European Court to hear push-back case first documented by ABR”

In the early hours of Thursday May 23, a boat carrying 25 people, amongst them 7 small children, was closing in on the northwestern shore of Samos, north west of Karlovasi. 6 kilometers from land a vessel from the Greek coast guard approached in high speed. From videos we received from people onboard, we canContinue reading “The European Commission Continues to Finance Pushbacks in Greece”

Almost a year ago, on June 26, we posted a video of a group of refugees handcuffed and duct-taped in the back of a van in Kos. The video immediately went viral on social media. The Major of Kos, Theodosis Nikitaras, who is known to have a close connection to the police and coast guardContinue reading “To Theodosis Nikitaras, Mayor of Kos, We Say This:”

In the cover of darkness on March 2, a rubber boat tried to reach the northern shores of Chios, when it was brutally stopped and illegally pushed back by the Greek coast guard. People onboard was robbed of their belongings, brutally beaten, thrown into two life rafts and left helplessly drifting in the middle ofContinue reading “Albanian NATO Vessel Turned A Blind Eye To Brutal Greek Pushback”

At first light on February 19, a boat carrying 37 people, amongst them 13 small children, ended up in distress deep inside Greek waters, south east of Plomari, Lesvos south. First on scene was the Bulgarian coast guard vessel “Balchik”, which is stationed on Lesvos as part of the European Border and Coast Guard AgencyContinue reading “The EU Border Agency Frontex Continues To Support Pushbacks In Greece”

In the afternoon of 25 January, a boat carrying 38 people, all Afghans, had almost reached land in the north of Lesvos, when they were stopped by two vessels from the Greek Coast guard, and illegally pushed back to Turkey. This happened while a Latvian Frontex vessel was present, seemingly only observing. It did nothingContinue reading “EU Border Agency Frontex Continues to Cover up Pushbacks From Greece”

In the morning of Sunday, April 7, a group of 72 people – 52 adults and 20 children – was adrift in a sailboat five kilometres south east of the Greek island of Leros, in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. The 72 people were a mix of Syrian (52), and Palestinian (20) nationals.Continue reading “Illegal Pushbacks Funded By EU Continues In Greece, Unhindered And Unchallenged”

Over the last month we have registered a shift in routes used by people seeking international protection in the Aegean Sea. Normally, people crossing from Turkey towards the Greek islands have had Lesvos, Chios, Samos and Kos as their main destination. Now, smaller islands seem to get more arrivals. Why this is happening now couldContinue reading “Another Europe is Possible: Time To Change Our Failing, Immoral Border Policies”