11/08: 13 travellers pushed back by Greek police at the land border!

12.08.2018 / 22:41 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 11th of August 2018
Case name: 2018_08_11-AEG410
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two groups of travellers at the land border between Turkey and Greece, one group pushed back by Greek police
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 11th of August the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to two groups of people close to the land border between Turkey and Greece, one group on the Greek side, and one group on the Turkish side. The travellers on the Greek side were pushed back to Turkey, and both groups were detained in Turkey for several days.

At 4.11pm CEST we received a message from a contact person, who alerted us to a group of 13 Palestinian travellers who had just crossed the land border between Turkey and Greece and feared being pushed back to Turkey. Amongst the travellers were nine children and one pregnant woman. The travellers were already in a Greek police station. We received a list of the names of all of the travellers to use as documentation that these people had reached European territory, which we forwarded to UNHCR. At 5.07pm the contact person informed us that the travellers were being brought back to Turkey. The following day at 11.16am we were informed that the travellers were being held in a Turkish police station, and had been told that they would be released on Tuesday.
At 4.33pm we were alerted by a contact person to a group of 27 travellers, amongst them families with children, who were lost in a forest in Turkey close to the Greek border. The contact person had last spoken to the travellers the day before in the morning, where they had already run out of food and water. The contact person forwarded us their last known position and their phone number, but we were not able to reach them. At 9.33pm the contact person informed us that most travellers had been found and were being held by the police in Istanbul. However, six of the travellers managed to make it to Greece. After trying without success to figure out where the travellers were being held, the contact person informed us two days later that they had been released.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • Border police patrols
     
    While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
  • Coastal radars
     
    Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
  • Exclusive Economic Zone
     
    Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
  • Frontex operations
     
    Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
  • Mobile phone coverage
     
    Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
  • Oil and gas platforms
     
    Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
  • Search and Rescue Zone
     
    An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
  • Territorial Waters
     
    A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans