Aegean Boat Report

A sailboat carrying approximately 90 people, all from Afghanistan, is currently drifting 35km south east of Koroni.

The boat has lost power on the engine and the person sailing the boat abandoned ship during the night.

Report on water entering the boat has been received. People onboard the sailboat needs to be rescued immediately and taken to a port of safety.

People onboard have called 112 and provided rescue services with their location, they were told to be patient..

From videos and pictures from the sailboat we can clearly see that the sailboat is dangerously overloaded, approximately 40 men, 30 women and 20 children are onboard.

Some of the men onboard is trying to fix the engine, but without proper tools and spear parts this is close to impossible.

The sailboat is drifting in a busy shipping lane, several ships have passed the drifting sailboat without any efforts to give assistance at sea.

The group has expressed that they want to apply for asylum in Greece, and that they fear being sent back to Turkey, for then to be deported back to Afghanistan.

Aegean Boay Report can’t do much in cases like this, besides to document and publish their case. In this area Greek coast guard is the only alternative, and if they don’t want to perform the rescue, there exists no others Solution.

We hope that the Greek coast guard finds and rescue this group, without any further delay, so that they can as soon as possible be taken to a port of safety.

Aegean Boat Report has also informed the Greek coast guard of this emergency, they reluctantly, and after some persuasion, registered the information, location, number of people and contact number.

Update 21.00 pm:

The sailboat is still drifting, so far the Greek coast guard have not started any rescue operation, even do they were informed over five hours ago.

Several commercial vessel have passed by the sailboat in the distance, if the Greek authorities had wanted to rescue them, it would not be difficult to find vessels close by to assist.

Two hours ago a Lambro 57 patrol vessel belonging to the Greek coast guard was spotted a few hundred meters from the boat, it stayed there for an hour before moving further away.

It’s getting dark and the wind and waves are picking up.

Wind direction is south east, that might become a problem during the night, when the sailboat will be drifting towards the cliffs in Gerolimenas 16 km away.

The last 5 hours the boat have drifted 14km, if the wind picks up even further the boat will crash into the cliffs in approximately 5-6 hours, if not rescued by Greek coast guard.

Hopefully it will not come to that, but at night in the dark, wind picking up, makes a rescue operation more challenging.

Update 02.09.22 21.00 pm:

Since last night there has been no contact with the passengers on the sailboat that was drifting outside Koroni.

Aegean Boat Report followed the sailboats movement until 23.00 pm, it then had drifted 30 km south east.

From the boat we received several videos taken outside in the dark, we can see lights in the distance, we assume the some of these lights are from vessels from the Greek coast guard that was observed earlier this evening.

From a video taken inside the boat last night, they beg for help, unfortunately no such help arrived. “ The boat is broken, Greek coast guard came and circled around us, but refused to help us. There is about 100-120 people her, children and women, we need help. There is water inside the boat, we are going to drown, the waves are high and we need emergency help”. The number of people he is referring to is not correct, as far as we have been able to confirm there were 87 people onboard this sailboat.

We have made inquiries regarding the whereabouts of this group from the drifting sailboat. The Greek coast guard claims that they found no sailboat in the area, nor any signs of a shipwreck. It’s very strange to claim that they have found no boat, when we have pictures of a vessel from the Hellenic coast guard a few hundred meters from the sailboat, there is no way they didn’t see them. Let’s just say that it’s quite obvious that the headquarters in Pireus is not telling the truth, so what reason do they have to lie?

We have just managed to confirm, from relatives and friends of the passengers from the sailboat, that the group are now back in Turkey. Turkish coast guard also confirmed that they found and rescued 87 people from 3 life rafts drifting in the Aegean Sea.

The Greek coast guard found and rescued 87 people from a sailboat drifting deep inside Greek waters, transported them not to a port of safety, but over 500km towards Turkish waters, and left them drifting in 3 life rafts. It was reported that there were at least 20 small children in the group.

More information on this case will be published on Aegean Boat Report, when we have finished the investigation and gathered more documentation.

In the early hours of August 17, a boat carrying 21 people, Palestinian families, arrived on the south west side of Agathonisi.

While they group still was disembarking from the boat, a fisherman arrived in a blue fishing boat. They claim that the fishermen sat fire to their boat, if this is true, or they did it themselves, and for what reason, we haven’t been able to find out, but the boat is on fire, this there is no doubt about.

After arriving they started climbing up the steep hills in the area, trying to get to hire ground to be able to navigate. At this point they contacted Aegean Boat Report for assistance.

The group provided pictures, videos and location data, there was no doubt that the group had arrived on Agathonisi.

One member in the group, a man, had fallen and hurt his back, in the video we can see him in what appears to be in grave pain. We learned later that he had a fraction in his spine after his fall.

Agathonisi is a small island in the northern part of the Dodecanese, only approximately 185 people live on this island, and there is no humanitarian organization present. The solution for this group, as advised by Aegean Boat Report, was to move to the nearest village and ask for assistance, if there were any medical emergencies they should immediately call 112.

After a while, after great efforts on our behalf, they agreed on walking towards the nearest village, in their case the village of Mikro Chorio, a few kilometers away.

While walking they made several videos to document their presence on the island, we can clearly see the pier in the port of Agios Georgios, the only harbor on the island.

Whit only basic tools like Google Maps and Google Earth, we can without any difficulties confirm, that the pictures and videos were taken south west of the harbor in Agios Georgios.

In another video we can clearly see a Greek coast guard vessel close to land, ΛΣ-612, a Lambro 57 coastal patrol vessel belonging to the Hellenic coast guard, stationed on Agathonisi. The coast guard had been alerted by the local fishermen, and was in the area to try to locate the new arrivals.

The group walked, not as we agreed to the village of Mikro Chorio, but down to port in Agios Giorgos, the time was 12.50 pm. Her they were observed and talked to several locals. Since coast guard already had arrived in port and notified local police, the group was immediately apprehended by police, time was 12.55.

The group was scared, they feared that they would be pushed back to Turkey, and sent several messages.

“Greek intelligence came to us and they will throw us a basket in the sea. Please help. Please, we have children”

“Please, please, help us, they will throw a basket into the sea, and we have sick children with us”

“We are in danger, we do not want them to throw us into the sea, we have children who are breastfed”

Last message from the group was a voice message at 13.39 pm, after this there were no response.

While we still had contact with the group on Agathonisi, local police told them that the coast guard would take them to the refugee camp on Leros, since there were no camps on Agathonisi. Later we learned that nobody had been taken to Leros this day, nor the following day.

Several locals in Agios Giorgos observed while the group of 21 people, some of them small children, were escorted onboard the vessel from the Greek coast guard, and taken back out to sea. Locals believed everything was in order, as coast guard also had explained to them, the refugees would be taken to Leros, unfortunately the coast guard and local police had lied, both to the refugees and the locals.

Onboard the coast guard vessel all belongings, bags, money, papers and phones was taken by the Greek coast guard officers. People were searched thoroughly, but one phone was hidden in a place they didn’t think of looking. The owner of the phone didn’t dare to take it out and use it, not before the Greek coast guard was out of sight. A video was then sent to Aegean Boat Report, from a life raft drifting outside Dikili, Turkey, it was sent by the same person who only a few hours earlier, had sent videos from Agathonisi.

At 17.25 pm Turkish coast guard found and rescued 21 people, all Palestinians, some of them small children, from a life raft drifting outside Didim, Turkey, 26 km from Agathonisi.

The Turkish coast guard had one hour earlier, been informed by email, that a group of people were drifting in this area, the email came from the Greek coast guard. It is remarkable how the Greek coast guard new that people were drifting in this area, in a Greek manufactured life raft, if they were not responsible. Especially since we can prove, without a doubt, that the same group had been on Agathonisi a few hours earlier, together with members of the Greek coast guard.

Comparing pictures and videos taken on Agathonisi, with the video from the life raft, and pictures and video from when they were rescued by the Turkish coast guard, leaves no doubt, it’s the same group that arrived on Agathonisi earlier this morning.

So the question is, how could this be possible, if this was not the handy-work of the Greek authorities? We have all seen the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Minister for Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarachi, time and time again, deny that Greek authorities are responsible.

There is only one possible conclusion, that is that the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is blatantly lying, not very reassuring when we are talking about a head of state. He’s not only lying to the Greek people, he is also lying to the European Commission, European and international leaders, international Organizations, the international press and religious leaders, he’s even lying to Pope Francis.

We call upon the international community, including the United Nations, European Union and individual nation states to stand against these shocking and reckless acts, and finally call the current Greek government to account for its disgraceful and illegal behaviour towards innocent men, women and children seeking safety from war, chaos and terror.

Push-backs are happening every single day in the Aegean Sea, and Greece will continue this inhuman practice, systematically violate people’s human rights, until Europe once again decides to put human rights back on the agenda. At the moment everyone is looking the other way, hoping that things will change, without their involvement, it won’t.. At the moment Europe is a disgrace, and embarrassment, against everything we once held highly, we seems to have lost our way, it will forever be a stain on history..

At some point people in charge of this madnes must be held accountable for there actions, this needs to stop!

A sailboat carrying approximately 85 people in distress 26 miles south west of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea, amongst them over 30 children.

The group has been traveling for over four days, and was heading towards Italy when the engine broke down earlier today, and the captain abandon the boat.

Now the boat is helplessly drifting, wind and current is pushing the boat further out in the Ionian Sea, away from land, they desperately needs to be rescued.

Several people have contacted the Greek coast guard regarding this boat, also the people from the boat. Location, contact number, number of people and situation onboard have been provided.

So far the coast guard has not arrived on location, lights can be seen in the distance, but this could possibly be other boats in the area. People onboard had also called 112 several times.

People who have called coast guard to inform them on this emergency are given the same answer, that they are informed and has boats in the area, so far no boats have arrived on location.

The group has expressed that they want to apply for asylum in Greece, and that they fear being sent back to Turkey, for then to be deported back to Iran.

Most of the people onboard are Iranian Kurds, many politicians they explain, to be deported back to Iran would be a clear death sentence.

Aegean Boay Report can’t do much in cases like this, besides to document and publish their case. In this area Greek coast guard is the only alternative, and if they don’t want to perform the rescue, there exists no others Solution.

We hope that the Greek coast guard finds and rescue this group, without any further delay, so that they can as soon as possible be taken to a port of safety.

Update 26.08.2022 10.00 am

During the night people onboard have tried to rest, it’s difficult to relax under these circumstances, not knowing what will become of them.

This morning the sailboat is still drifting, so far no effort has been done by the Greek coast guard to assist or rescue the boat in distress in Greek waters.

In the distance we can clearly see a coast guard vessel, but they are not approaching the sailboat.

People onboard is waiting and hoping that the Greek coast guard will eventually rescue them, several calls has been made to Greek emergency services 112, the only response has been that they have told the group to be patient.

The group are running out of food and water, if this drags out much longer, children will have nothing more to eat or drink.

A coast guard vessel are closing in, but so far only circling the sailboat from a distance, for so to move away again, why Greek authorities do not initiate a rescue operation is so far unknown.

The Greek coast guard is well aware of the situation, and are present with at least two vessel. One bigger coast guard ship we can see in the distance, and a smaller one, a Lambro 57 Coastal Patrol vessel ΛΣ-143, beloning to the Hellenic Coast Guard, circling the sailboat.

We fear the the Greek authorities are considering pushing these people back to Turkey, let’s remind the Greek authorities of their duties according to international law and the law of the sea.

Rescue of people in distress at sea, regardless of their nationality or status, is an unconditional obligation for all ships in vicinity and coastal state authorities. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS Convention) provides that:“ Every State shall require the master of a ship flying its flag, in so far as he can do so without serious danger to the ship, the crew or the passengers: (a) to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost; (b) to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him.” (Art. 98 (1))
Furthermore, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea imposes an obligation on every coastal State Party to:

“…promote the establishment, operation and maintenance of an adequate and effective search and rescue service regarding safety on and over the sea and, where circumstances so require, by way of mutual regional arrangements, co-operate with neighbouring States for this purpose”. (Art. 98 (2))
The Guidelines on the Treatment of Persons Rescued at Sea (adopted in May 2004 by the Maritime Safety Committee together with the SAR and SOLAS amendments) contain the following provisions:
“The government responsible for the SAR region in which survivors were recovered is responsible for providing a place of safety or ensuring that such a place of safety is provided.” (Resolution MSC.167(78), para. 2.5).

Update 26.08.2022 17.00 pm:

The sailboat carrying approximately 85 people is still drifting in the same area, Greek coast guard have still made any effort to rescue the people in distress.

Two men is seen in a video using a small rubber boat trying to go for help, but we do not believe this is remotely possible, since the distance to Zakynthos is now close to 30 miles.

From videos we can see that people onboard seems to be, under the circumstances, doing better than expected. But they say that they have no more food and water, and can not stay at see much longer.

In a voice message sent to Aegean Boat Report from one of the passengers on the sailboat, she confirms that they have no more food and water, and that people onboard are very worried about what will happen to them. She asks again that they need to be rescued, so far Greek authorities do not listen.

The sailboat has now been drifting for almost 20 hours, equally long the Greek authorities has refused to rescue a boat in distress carrying 85 people, men women and children, who now is facing another night at sea, drifting in the dark.

Update 26.08.2022 19.30 pm:

Just now a vessel, a Lambro 57 belonging to he Hellenic coast guard arrived, people say people onboard the coast guard vessel started taking pictures of them, for what reason we don’t know.

Food and water has been provided by the coast guard, what the next steps will be is so far not clear. Hopefully they will be transferred to a larger coast guard vessel and taken to a port of safety.

A large tanker has pulled up next to the sailboat, it seems like the Greek coast guard is going to use this tanker to transfer the group to port, question will then be what port.

The vessel is identified as the Antigua and Barbuda registered Bulk Carrier HC Jana Rosa, traveling from Alexandria, Egypt to Split in Croatia.

People from the sailboat now confirmed that everyone has been taken onboard the Jana Rosa, what port they will disembark in is so far unknown.

Update 26.08.2022 20.30 pm:

People onboard just informed us that the tanker Jana Rosa will be taking them to Athens, and that they will need to stay on this tanker for 11 hours.

The tanker will then have to deviate from its original route, that was Split in Croatia, to get the rescued passengers to Athens.

Aegean Boat Report is revealed that this group finally was rescued, and will be taken to a port of safety. We will be following the movement of the Jana Rosa until it docks in Athens.

Update 27.08.2022 01.30 am:

After days at sea in uncertainty on what their faith would be, if they this time would reach Europe, the group is finally safe. They know now for sure that they will not be pushed back to Turkey, they will be able to apply for asylum.

After boarding the Jana Rosa, the crew has been amazing. Everyone was provided with food, some even got beds to sleep in, hospitality that was received with great gratitude.

It’s remarkable that something many of us take for granted, to be rescued at see if in distress, be taken care of by our rescuers, seems like a gift from heaven for this group. Everyone is revealed, many trying to contact their loved ones on the phone to give them the good news.

We take out human rights and international laws for granted, but yet we fail to provide this to the most vulnerable people showing up at our doorstep, asking for protection.

The group are on the way to Kalamáta, and will be in port 06.00

Their journey and struggles in Europe has just begun, but we have at least given them a fighting chance.

Monday August 15 a group of 9 people contacted Aegean Boat Report for assistance, after they had arrived on Leros the previous day.

The group sent pictures from their hideout on Leros, in an old abandoned building in a remote area of the island. Most likely locals on Leros could recognize the building from the pictures.

To arrive in Europe and have to hide from authorities in fear of being beaten and left drifting in life rafts, sounds crazy for most of us, Europe is more civilized than that, well it’s not, not in Greece anyway.

Unfortunately contact was lost with the group before we were able to provide any assistance, and the small group of people magically disappeared from Leros.

We assumed that the group had been found by Greek authorities, and removed from the island as so many before them, and a few days later this was confirmed.

On August 16, at 05.50, a life rafts was found drifting outside Didim, Turkey, carrying 9 people.

When we compare pictures sent from the group on Leros, to the pictures and videos from when the Turkish coast guard found them drifting outside Didim, there isn’t much doubt, it’s the same group.

A video testimony on what happened was recorded by Turkish authorities after they had been taken to port, her he describes that they took all their belongings, and even beat them.

We don’t know much about this group, and we probably never will, but we can at least publish their story, to show what happened to them by the hand of the Greek authorities, we at least ow them that much.

40.000 people have been pushed back in the Aegean Sea alone by Greek authorities, many left drifting in life rafts after being arrested on Greek islands. It’s a direct violation of international laws and human rights, so far nothing has been done by the European Commission to stop these crimes against humanity.

A boat carrying 19 people arrived south of Tsonia, Lesvos north east at 06.30 on August 12.

Immediately after arriving they fled to the hills in the souroundin area to hide from Greek authorities, afraid to he found and pushed back to Turkey. In the group there were 8 children, 5 women and 6 men.

The group contacted Aegean Boat Report for assistance, but before we managed to reach out to them, all phones when they offline, and all connection was lost.

Before we lost contact the group manager to provide pictures, videos and geolocations, proving without a doubt their presence on Lesvos.

No new arrivals was taken neither to the quarantine camp in the north, nore the south, this is also confirmed by the official registration of arrivals by Greek authorities.

We assume that authorities had found the group, because all phones was offline, and that the group had been forcibly removed from the island, this is the “normal” illegal practice of the Greek authorities.

In two of the videos they sent, we can see them hiding around some trees in the area, also a helicopter closing in, if this is related to a search of the area we have not been able to confirm, but shortly after all contact was lost.

If this helicopter was in fact searching for this group, it’s most likely a helicopter belonging to Frontex, stationed on the island. If that’s the case there should be a log of the helicopters location and time, that could confirm their involvement in pushback activity together with the Greek authorities.

All phones went offline between 09.41 and 09.48, Greek time, we do not believe they all ran out of power on their phones at the same time. It’s more likely that in these 7 minutes, the group was found and all phones taken away from them by force, usually at gunpoint from previous experience.

From locals we have information that there was a lot of activities in the area this morning, that most likely had to do with new arrivals. Later, at 13.00 two police cars was observed coming from Kleio/Tsonia, driving south towards Mantamados.

On August 12 at 14.06 a group of 19 people was found and rescued from a life raft drifting outside Dikili, Turkey, by the Turkish coast guard. They had 30 minutes earlier been informed by email from the Greek coast guard, that a group of people was drifting in this area, in need of rescue.

When we compared pictures and videos sent to us from the group of 19 after they arrived on Lesvos, with the footage from the Turkish coast guard when they rescued the people from the life raft, we can clearly see that it is definitely the same people, there is absolutely no doubt.

At 09.48 the group was found by Greek authorities on Lesvos north east, 3 hours and 48 minutes later they had “successfully” removed them from the island and left them drifting in a life raft outside Dikili, Turkey.

It’s clear for everyone that the group could not have moved from the north of Lesvos to the sea area outside Dikili, 50 km away, by themselves, in a life raft, without any form of engine, someone had to have done this, and who other than the Greek coast guard could possibly be responsible?

This operation was done in brought daylight, and clearly shows that Greek authorities are not in any way concerned that their illegal activities will have any consequences, and since there has been no condemnation from the European Commission, we must assume that these violations of international laws and human right is blessed by the Commission as border management.

The police cars observed leaving the area in the north of Lesvos at 13.00 driving south must have been empty. The commandos wearing balaclavas, driving in cars without license plates, must have left the area many hours earlier with the group.

We have followed this case, investigated and now published our findings. The case is quite straight forward, not especially complicated, it’s not rocket science. Anyone can without to much difficulty look at all the facts presented, and make a fairly accurate conclusion, but for some strange reason EU politicians seems not to be able to.

We must assume that these politicians are perhaps at least moderately intelligent people, they at least should be. From what they have been able to do regarding these violations performed by a member state, we actually can start to wonder, and if they are intelligent people, why are they not doing anything about it?

Since March 2020 the Greek authorities had pushed back 40.000 people in 1.500 cases the Aegean Sea alone. In this period over 800 life rafts carrying refugees have been found in the Aegean, and nobody from the Commision is even considering looking in to it, that just amazing.

Frontex involvement in human rights violations in Greece is no longer a question, it’s a matter of fact. They tried to keep the report from European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) a secret, away from the public, but a leak of the report to international press blew the case wide open, exposing that Frontex covered up pushbacks by Greek authorities, and even assisted.

How this will be handled by the European Commission is still not clear, the only responsible and correct thing to do is to pull Frontex out of Greece, and freeze all financial support to the country, until state of law is restored, but not a very likely scenario.

The Commission is at the moment deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid, an embarrassment for Europe, and by no means reflects the European way of life, our values, quiet the opposite.

On Thursday, August 11, we published a case on 18 people arriving in Limani Kapis, Lesvos north.

“A boat carrying 18 people, 8 adults and 10 minors, landed north of Limani Kapis, Lesvos north east at 06.00 this morning, one of the new arrivals are pregnant”

Unfortunately only 8 of them made it to safety, 5 was taken to the quarantine camp in Megala Therma, a pregnant women taken to hospital in Mytilíni, Lesvos south, and two taken to the RIC in the south, one remains unaccounted for.

We have identified the 5 taken to the quarantine structure in the north, and the woman taken to hospital from the group of 18 that arrived.

After arriving on Lesvos on the morning of August 11, they split into two groups, a group consisting of 9 people, amongst them 7 minors, was after two hours located by Greek authorities and arrested.

The group was stripped of all belongings and beaten by the police, even the woman, according to information from one of victims. A small boat transported them out to a bigger vessel, after two hours they were left drifting in a life raft outside Dikili, Turkey.

Turkish coast guard found and rescued 9 people in a life raft drifting outside Dikili, Turkey at 15.15 on August 11.

From pictures provided by the group while on Lesvos, we have clearly identified all of them in the pictures and videos taken by Turkish coast guard when they were found drifting outside Dikili.

There isn’t much doubt in who is responsible, especially since 8 of their friends are now officially registered by Greek authorities on Lesvos. They are witnesses and can confirm that the 9 found in the life raft, is the same people they traveled with to lesvos in the early hours of August 11.

In most countries in Europe rule of law is highly valued, and such claims as serious as this would immediately be thoroughly investigated, but not in Greece. Any such investigation would most definitely come to the conclusion that Greek authorities rescued 8 people that arrived this day, and the 9 had somehow found a life raft and paddled the 50 km back to Turkey in under 3 hours, because they had changed their mind for some reason.

The Turkish coast guard had been notified by the Greek coast guard by email that there was a group of people in this area that needed to be rescued. Greek authorities denies any involvement in these illegal pushbacks, but how could they possibly have known that there was people in life rafts in this area, if they themselves hadn’t put them there.

This is the result of Greek authorities inhuman treatment of refugees arriving on Greek Aegean islands, they are hunted like animals, robed, beaten, raped and killed, humiliated in the worst way imaginable, it can only be seen as systematic torture.

Another “successful” illegal operation performed by the Greek coast guard, on direct orders from the Greek authorities, to protect Europe from these unwanted people. In these difficult times it’s easy to see that we do not value life equally, we differentiate between people who are more “similar” to us, the right skin color and religion, and we open our doors, the rest, those unlucky ones, we beat and torture, we mutilate, even kill to keep them out of our precious Europe.

Human rights are everyone’s: they are the rights of every person on Earth, regardless of their race, their nationality, their colour or their beliefs.

How people, who most likely have their own family, children, could do this to people, is beyond me. How can they look themselves in the mirror knowing that they are torturing people on a daily basis.

It’s time for European politicians to take off their blindfolds, it’s time to see that what is going on on the borders of Europe is a crime against humanity, to say “we didn’t know” is no longer an option.We must stop pretending that this doesn’t concern us, that’s it’s “their” rights that are being violated, not ours.

Those rights belong to us all: once they are taken from one of us, they can be taken from us all. It must stop. We cannot simply turn a blind eye to this – the disgrace of Europe. Instead, we must stand, together, and demand better: from our governments, from the EU, from the international community.

The Greek government must stop pretending to ‘know nothing’ about a practice which is clearly its policy. It must stop pretending that every NGO operating in Greece, as well as the UN, international media and the European Council’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, are in fact somehow ‘employees of’ or collaborators in, Turkish ‘propaganda’.

It must, immediately – as Greece’s Ombudsman has concluded and demands – open truly independent public and accessible investigations into the actions of its own uniformed officers in illegally expelling men, women and children seeking decent places to live.

It amust end this shameful, illegal, dehumanising, embarrassing and unacceptable practice.

According to information published by the Turkish coast guard, a group of 12 people was captured on the island of Chios, after they had arrived on a boat from Turkey together with 27 others.

Before being forced back out to sea, they were taken to an unknown location, stripped of their belongings and beaten by 10 masked men. One of them was taken away in a car, “we could see him being taken away” one of the victims explained, “we think they had killed him”.

In a video testimony, one of the victims explains how 11 of them were taken back out and thrown into the sea by Greek coast guard, without life vests, some in handcuffs.

At 10.05 yesterday morning Turkish coast guard found 8 people on the island of Karaada, 16 kilometers from Chios, one body had washed up on shore, two people was reported missing. A search and rescue operation was initiated to locate the two missing, as a result two more bodies was found in the area.

Yesterday the local online news Astraparis published about a group of 10 people spotted in the area of Tholos, Chios north east.

A total of 21 people was located in the area and taken to the quarantine structure in Lefkonia, according to official registration published by Greek authorities.

Question is, are these two cases linked?
The pushback victims claims they had traveled to Chios together with 27 other people. 21 people was found and registered, 12 was taken by police, that would leave 6 people not accounted for.

What happened to the man taken away by police from the group of 12, and who were the two women who handed them over to the police? Many questions will remain unanswered, due to lack of verifiable documentation.

The answers might be found amongst the 21 taken to the quarantine structure in Lefkonia, Chios. If what the survivors claims is correct, we are looking at not only attempted murder, but also the murder of at least three people.

That people have been thrown directly into the sea with handcuffs by the hands of the Greek coast guard, is unfortunate not new. This we have heard many times before, both from the Turkish coast guard, but mostly from victims, people who have survived this cruel and inhuman treatment.

If this is what happened in this case, we honestly can’t say for sure. The information we have so far is pointing in that direction, but so far not conclusive.

Sunday afternoon another body was found outside Palios, Lesvos north east, it was in such stat that gender was not possible to determine. The body was transferred to the General hospital in Mytilíni.

People continues to die in the Aegean Sea while searching for safety in Europe.

Over the last three years 38.000 people have been pushed back in the Aegean Sea in 1.500 cases by Greek authorities, despite the mounting evidence against them, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, continue to deny Greek involvement in these atrocities.

Evidence is recorded by UN bodies, NGOs and investigative journalists. However, Mitsotakis refuted the ever mounting evidence of systematic pushbacks, saying Greece fully respects fundamental rights and doubling down on often repeated claims that such allegations are orchestrated by Turkey.

UN bodies and human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back refugees, saying it violates human rights and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable people, including women and children.

Pushbacks are contrary to international refugee protection agreements, which dictate that people should not be expelled or returned to a country where their life and safety might be in danger due to their race, religion, nationality, or membership in a social or political group.

A concerning trend in Greece of criminalisation of civil society organizations, who continue to expose Greek authorities, and the use of smear campaigns to restrict migrant rights defenders from operating.

So far almost 800 life rafts has been picked up by Turkish coast guard in the Aegean Sea, carrying over 13.000 men, women and children, who have been illegally removed from Greek islands by authorities.

We have put together videos from 170 life raft cases, filmed by the Turkish coast guard, from the last year, and decided to publish them in a uncensored video. The video is over 90 minutes, and shows only some of the life raft cases in the last year, if we had published them all the video would be over 6 hours.

How this have been allowed to continue for all these years, still ongoing every single day, supported by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency FRONTEX, funded by the European Commission, is reprehensible, these are the “European values” we are trying to protect.

European politicians have for far to long been looking the other way, while these crimes against humanity have been performed in our name, at our borders. They are even to this day, still debating “if” this is actually taking place, and if so, who is responsible.

The “if” and “who” has already been documented and proven without a doubt, the evidence is overwhelming, now it’s time to put the people responsible on trial for crimes against humanity, and restore our good name and reputation, our values.

In the early hours of July 8, a group of 29 people arrived north of Pamfila, Lesvos south east. After arriving they tried to hide from Greek police in the surrounding area. The group consisted of Afghan families, amongst them 15 children.

The following day, in the afternoon, they contacted Aegean Boat Report for assistance, and provided pictures, videos and geolocations, there was absolutely no doubt that the group was on Lesvos.

Before we managed to find someone on the ground to assist, contact was lost. We had contact with the group for only 35 minutes, last contact was 17.25.

The group had most likely been spotted by locals the following day, or their boat had been found on the beach. Port police had sent out a “hunting party” to the area to locate the new arrivals, men in unmarked vehicles wearing balaclavas and carrying guns was observed in the area. We believe contact was lost when they were found and arrested by Greek authorities, all phones confiscated and turned off as they routinely do when they intend to remove people from the island. The group had arrived less than 4 km from the camp on Lesvos.

Local assets went to the location, but to late, there was nobody there, the group had already been removed. They could clearly see that the area had been used, grass was flattened and garbage was left behind, all with Turkish label’s.

The camps, north and south, reported no new arrivals at the time, we feared that the group was in imminent danger of being pushed back, if not already removed. We published about the group on Facebook to make public awareness, perhaps someone on the ground had seen or heard something that could shed light on the situation.

We know now that 16 people from this group, most of them small children, was arrested and held captive at gunpoint on Lesvos, until the Greek coast guard removed them from the island by force, that anyone could treat these small children with such cruelty is beyond my comprehension.

The rest of the group had managed to escape the area on foot, and was hiding from the authorities until nightfall. It was later learned that small groups had arrived by themselves at the refugee camp in Mavrovouni, this night and the following day, under four kilometers from their arrival location.

People moved under cover of darkness in small groups, through the hills and small roads to avoid being detected, slowly closing in on the camp.

16 people was found and rescued by the Turkish coast guard at 20.45 on July 8 outside Dikili, south east of Lesvos. 16 people, mostly small children, had been forced into a life raft and left helplessly drifting in the Aegean Sea by the Greek coast guard.

When we compared pictures and videos received by Aegean Boat Report while the group was on Lesvos, with footage from when they were found by the Turkish coast guard, there is absolutely no doubt that it’s the same people, we could positively identify all 16.

In an interview conducted by Turkish officials, a man from the group explained how some of them had been arrested and stripped of all belongings. They had been transported in the back of a van, taken from the beach in a smaller boat out to a coast guard vessel that was waiting for them, and left drifting in a life raft in the Aegean Sea.

Greek authorities claims that they do not perform pushbacks, and that all the evidence piling up against them over the last two years is the result of Turkish propaganda. UN, reputed journalists, NGOs, European MEPs, international courts, even the high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, are being manipulated by “propaganda machines and smuggling networks”, paid off, according to the Greek authorities..

Greek uniformed officers beat these people. They rob them, strip them, in some cases sexually assault them. They ridicule them, injure them, and in some cases kill them. It is hard to imagine how any government could possibly behave worse to people seeking safety.

As long as human rights abuse by Greek authorities continues, all funding from the EU should and must stop, on all projects. Funding already received should be thoroughly investigated to determine if funds are used as intended. End all Frontex operations and remove all Frontex presence currently deployed in Greece, until violations of international laws and human rights are brought to an end.

The European Union border guard agency’s oversight mechanisms have failed to safeguard people against serious human rights violations at the EU’s external borders. The actions of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), shows a pattern of failure to credibly investigate or take steps to mitigate abuses against migrants at EU external borders, even in the face of clear evidence of rights violations.

Frontex has repeatedly failed to take effective action when allegations of human rights violations are brought to its attention. Frontex has seven oversight, reporting, and monitoring mechanisms with the stated purpose of ensuring that its officers do not engage in abuse, are held accountable if they do, and are not complicit in abuse by EU member states. They include a system to report serious incidents that has recorded only a few incidents but failed to prevent abuse, and failed to hold those responsible accountable.

Under Article 46 of the Frontex Regulation, the agency also has a duty to suspend or terminate operations in case of serious abuses, Greece is a textbook example of such abuse.

Since March 2020, Greek authorities have illegal pushed back 36.885 people in 1.396 cases, left 870 boats and 740 life rafts helplessly drifting in the Aegean Sea, in some cases assisted by Frontex.

Pushbacks violate the fundamental asylum-law principle of non-refoulement and are contrary to international and EU human rights law of which Greece, as an EU Member State is subject to as well as national law (article 20 and 41 of Law no. 3907 of 2011.16).

It is the absolute legal right of any person to travel to any state, with or without paperwork, to apply for asylum. It is absolutely illegal for any government to prevent them, or to force them out of the country once they have entered, without giving their application for asylum due consideration.

On 27 June 2022, we at ABR were asked by Greece’s National Transparency Authority to submit evidence relating to 28 pushbacks carried out by uniformed officers of the Greek police and/or coastguard in the Eastern Aegean islands and sea, between 25 March 2020, and 20 May 2021.

It is a request we have, after careful consideration and no small hesitation, decided we have no choice but to turn down.

A total of 1,193 people were pushed back in the incidents the NTA wishes to investigate, (in the entire period 1 March 2022 to 31 May 2021, the Greek government pushed back 12,741 men, women and children in 427 incidents).  

The large number, combined with the serious nature of the Greek authorities’ consistent law-breaking (as well as violence towards, and its theft of the property of, the people it pushes back) does inspire us to want a full and proper investigation to be carried out.

And as soon as we can be confident such an investigation will take place, we will happily share our documentation – all of which can, in any case, already be found at https://aegeanboatreport.com/ – with the body tasked with carrying it out.

But to our regret, that investigation – one carried out seriously, by people capable of doing so – simply will not and cannot be conducted by the NTA.

We have very good reason to fear, also, that our professional reputation will be damaged by any association with this specific investigation, and by contact with the NTA, and so we must decline to be involved with it.

Our reasons are as follows:

The National Transparency Authority is extremely poorly-placed to undertake investigations into pushbacks being carried out from Greece, under the orders of the Greek government (our position is that this is precisely what is happening: even if that is not your position, it is absolutely undeniable that this is what the NTA is being asked to investigate).

It was set up in 2019, by the Greek government, and its members include close personal friends of government ministers – including the country’s Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis.

At least as important, the NTA was not set up to investigate issues as grand and as serious as the systematic breaking of international law as a policy of the Greek government.

It was created to investigate wrongdoing on the scale of – for example – the Novartis Hellas bribery scandal, in which government ministers belonging to Nea Dimokratia and PASOK took cash from the healthcare company: to determine whether members of the Greek parliament and/or any other political groups in Greece had broken rules.

It simply does not have the capacity, nor the specialist staff, to undertake an investigation on this scale, into whether – and we openly maintain that it certainly has and is – the Greek government, since March 2020, in direct violation of international and European law, ordered and is ordering its uniformed officers to push men, women and children out of Greece.

That is, with the best will in the world, and even if the NTA wants to undertake such an investigation, it simply cannot do so.

Its findings, under such circumstances, will only damage men, women and children seeking safe places to live, learn and work, who the Greek government targets and attacks, and will continue to do so as long as it is ‘legitimised’ by poorly-handled and comically-conducted ‘investigations’.

And this absolutely does have the potential to impact our professional reputation.

Our concerns are not based on nothing, because this has already happened.

On 29 March 2022, the Authority issued a press release regarding its investigation into a series of pushbacks documented by Lighthouse Reports, which had compiled video and photographic footage, and testimonies from people pushed back.

It concluded that ‘there was no evidence’ that pushbacks had taken place – a claim which handed Greece and Europe’s far-Right, including members of the Nea Dimokratia party, to claim there was ‘no evidence’ of pushbacks from Greece.

The conclusion not only ignored the evidence of pushbacks happening which Lighthouse Reports provided to the Authority, and that compiled by us, other organisations, and national and international media across the Western world, but also the fact that the Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis himself has described pushbacks and stated that the Greek government does carry them out.

The Authority revealed that in order to come to this remarkable conclusion, it had asked the Greek Police to ‘examine’ Lighthouse Reports’ videos, and on the basis of the force’s advice, concluded that they – and all the other evidence – was unreliable.

As the Greek Police is in fact one of the major bodies the Authority should have been investigating, this is rather like showing a person a video of them breaking into a house and stealing jewellery and a TV, and following their advice on whether the video constitutes ‘evidence’.

To be as polite as we possibly can be, this does not in any way give us confidence in the Authority’s capability to investigate something as large and important as this.

And it went further.

On Thursday 12 May 2022, more than a month after putting out its press release, a period in which the far-Right consistently – and of course wrongly – smeared Lighthouse as an organisation, claiming it had ‘doctored’ videos, which it had not, the Authority finally published its full report on the ‘investigation’.  

It has since been taken down from the Authority’s website (it was here), but it can be accessed here.

It revealed that not only had the Authority accepted without question advice on whether evidence was reliable from one of the major suspects in the matter it was supposed to be investigating, it had failed to speak to a single organisation documenting pushbacks (except to ask Lighthouse for ‘more details’), and had not spoken to a single person who had been pushed back.

It did speak to some people who had arrived in Greece and been registered as having done so, but by definition they have not experienced being pushed-back (or even if they have, they are unwilling to risk their status in Greece by saying so).

To return to our ‘burglary’ metaphor, the Authority appears to have conducted its ‘investigation’ not only by dismissing the evidence on the advice of the person under investigation, but also by refusing to talk to the victims of the burglary and instead only contacting people who have never in their lives been burgled.

To make matters worse, in the more than six weeks between the Authority putting out its press release and publishing its (now deleted) report, Fabrice Leggeri, the executive director of the EU’s border agency Frontex, and a man given a medal by Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachis for ‘helping Greece ‘with its ‘refugee response’ was forced to resign in shame and ignominy, when it was proven from Frontex own documents that the agency had both carried out pushbacks, and worked to cover-up pushbacks carried out by the Greek authorities, in the Aegean.

Not only that, in his protracted resignation statements, Leggeri revealed that he had been told it was Frontex’s job to carry out pushbacks.

Of course, this came too late for the Authority to have avoided putting out its press release and then waiting several weeks while politicians and others attacked Lighthouse’s good work, but it was certainly not too late – in fact it had almost two weeks – for it to have decided not to publish its report and instead to have issued a retraction of and apology for, its incorrect conclusion.   

We cannot, in all conscience, take part in an investigation we believe will be no more than a masquerade.

The National Transparency Authority, even if it is inclined to, is not equipped to do a proper job of investigating pushbacks from Greece by the Greek government through the authorities it employs.

Its manifest failings, including its failure to really carry out an investigation, its use as its main authority on the reliability of the huge amount of evidence provided to it one of the main suspects in the crime itwas supposed to be investigating, as well as the way in which it – intentionally or otherwise – created the perfect space (and inexplicably enormous amount of time) for the far-Right to attack and smear Lighthouse Reports (and stand back and say nothing while it happened), as well as its failure to even factor-in the Frontex revelations despite the fact that they were directly material to the Greek government’s own illegal activities, lead us to only one conclusion: the only one possible.

It would be both pointless and harmful to us as an organisation, and to the men, women and children seeking safe places to live, learn and work in Europe, for us to take part in this new ‘investigation’, or any other sharede by the NTA. And we shall not.

We cannot justify implying validation of this ‘investigation’, by pretending it is a serious effort to ‘discover the truth’. It is not, and we shall not.

As soon as an investigation is given to a competent body, such as the Greek Ombudsman or a committee of experts (and expert investigators), we shall, of course, be involved if asked.

Until then, you can continue to view all the evidence of the tens of thousands of pushbacks carried out by the Greek government at https://aegeanboatreport.com/