Author Archives: Tommy Olsen

For the last two weeks Aegean Boat Report have been contacted by numerous groups of Afghan families, all with one thing in common, they have all been transported from Turkish coastal cities in the North Aegean, to a camp in the outskirts of Iğdir, eastern Turkey, a few kilometers from the border to Iran. TheContinue reading “Afghan Families In Turkey Face Deportation To Iran”

In the morning of March 4, the Turkish coast guard found and rescued 87 people drifting in 4 life rafts outside Datça, Turkey. 26 of the people in the life rafts were small children. I’m sorry to say this, and yes, it’s totally crazy, but people being left drifting in life rafts in the AegeanContinue reading “26 Children Left Helplessly Drifting In Life Rafts By The Greek Coast Guard”

On Thursday February 29, at 18.30, Aegean Boat Report were contacted by a group of 18 people, 15 adults and 3 children, from Afghanistan and Palestine, who had arrived on the Greek island of Farmakonisi. The group was scared, and asked for assistance so that they could be taken to the nearest port of safety,Continue reading “Pushbacks Continues Unhindered And Unchallenged In Greece”

On Friday February 23, a group of 30 people arrived on the militarized desert island of Farmakonisi. The group contacted Aegean Boat Report and asked for assistance, they begged to be taken to a camp, and given the opportunity to apply for international protection, but the Greek authorities had other plans. The people on FarmakonisiContinue reading “The first documented pushback from the Greek islands since the Pylos shipwreck, amongst them 10 Palestinians, the madnes continue in Greece.”

After dark on Monday November 20 a rubber boat carrying 17 Afghans, six of them small children, sat out from Turkey towards the Greek island of Lesvos. They hoped that they would reach the island within a few hours, in the cover of darkness, that the Greek coast guard and Frontex, who are guarding theContinue reading “The Refuge Hunt In The Aegean Sea Continues”

In the early morning of Monday November 13, at 07.30, a boat carrying 23 afghans, mostly families with children, was stopped 100 meters from land east of Korakas, Lesvos north by a vessel from the Greek coast guard. In the video, that was taken by one of the passengers, we can clearly see the cliffsContinue reading “23 Afghans Beaten, Tortured and Pushed Back Outside Lesvos”

For three months people arriving on the Greek Aegean islands have been allowed to stay, pushbacks from land stopped, life rafts almost disappeared from the Aegean Sea, the situation was seemingly getting better. This is at least what Greek authorities wanted everyone to believe, the facts tells a different story, and it’s about to goContinue reading “Human Rights Violations Skyrocketing in Greece, But Do We Really Care?”

On June 26 we published a disturbing video from Kos showing 14 people trapped and gagged in the back of a van, this is what we published. The video went viral the moment it was published, viewed on Twitter by over 500.000 people the first day, it created a lot of attention, and by someContinue reading “Refugees Beaten, Handcuffed and Eyes Taped Shut on Kos”

Since 1 March 2020, the Greek government’s main response to refugees arriving on Greek islands has been to send masked men to hunt them down, arrest, rob, and in some cases rape or otherwise sexually abuse them, before forcing them back to the sea, leaving them to drift helplessly in life rafts. The systematic violationContinue reading “Change at last in Greek border activity. But will it last?”

On May 19, only four days after the shocking video was published in The New York Times showing Greek authorities pushing back 12 people from Lesvos, 96 people was lefts drifting in 4 life rafts in the middle of the sea. No journalist or EU politician has mentioned them with a single word, no article,Continue reading “Pushbacks Continues Unhindered in Greece Despite Warnings from Brussels”