19/01/2024 : In memory of Muhammad Khair Ghalia (6 years old)

20.01.2024 / 23:57 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of January 2024
Case name: 2024_01_19-Eastern Med - 027
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med, Aegean

In memory of Muhammad Khair Ghalia (6 years old), who had been pushed back and injured before he drowned in the Aegean Sea

On 5.10.23 the Alarm Phone was alerted for a boat in distress in Turkish waters. It was a small rubber boat with 14 people on board. Finally they were found by the Turkish coastguard (TCG) after a long time of drifting, after a pushback in the area around Chios.

Later, in beginning of December 2023, we got in touch with a Syrian man who was on board with his family. He reported to us more in detail what had happened on that day. They had been attacked by the Greek coastguard who mistreated them and destroyed the engine of the small rubber boat. The gasoline went all into the boat. Two of his children suffered from serious burns on their legs from the toxic mix of gasoline and seawater and had to be treated in hospital. They had been sitting for hours in the mix of gasoline and seawater. He sent us also photos of the injuries of the children.

In this time, his main question was, how to find a safe way to get out of Turkey. The family had fled from the war in Syria to Turkey. Then in Turkey they were hit by the earthquake. When they tried to flee from Turkey they experienced this violent push-back. And now they were very much afraid to take another time a boat to flee to Europe. But in the same time also Turkey was not safe any more for them. He expressed his extreme fear to be deported to Syria. A brother and a sister in law were already deported from Turkey to Syria. In Syria his life would be in danger, so staying in Turkey was not possible any more. But they were so much afraid to try another time by boat, because of the violence they had faced during the pushbacks and especially because of the suffering of the children during the pushback and afterwards.

Unfortunately there were no safe ways to get out of there. In the night from 19 to 20 January 2024 the family made another attempt to flee to Greece.

In the night from 19 to 20 January 2024 we were alerted for a boat with 44 people who had tried to cross between Datca and Symi and the boat was in serious distress. In the end we were informed by the Turkish coastguard that they had found in the boat in total 30 people, but several people had fallen into the water so a search was started for the missing. 11 people were found alive and 3 dead; one of the alive people died later in the hospital.

Later we found out that among those who drowned was Muhammad Khair Ghalia, the 6-year-old son of Hussein Ghalia, one of the children who were in October already so badly injured.

Our thoughts are with Muhammad whose young life was lost at this deadly border of Europe.
Our thoughts are with his parents, sisters and brothers, who tried to reach a safe place and now they are missing Muhammad so much.
We will never forget the suffering of this child.

The family Ghalia is asking for support, they applied for resettlement so that their traumatised children can finally find a safe home, but so far their chances to get it are close to zero. In case you have any possibilities to support, we can establish a direct contact. You can send what you are able to offer plus contact details by email to: aegean@alarmphone.org

Credibility:

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