Watch the Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th January 2024
Case name: 2024_01_25-Eastern Med - 037
Situation: 33 people, including 17 children, taken by Turkish Coast Guards after being violently pushed back by Greek authorities
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:
Early afternoon, the 25th of January, the Alarm Phone received an alert of a relative to a group of 33 people, including 17 children in distress near Lesvos. Soon after we managed to talk to the people on the boat who gave us a GPS location. We immediately alerted the Greek authorities who didn’t want to go as the location was in Turkish Search and Rescue Zone (SAR).
Later, we contacted them again after we had received a new location being now in Greek SAR. Shortly afterwards, the relative contacted us again to report that 2 boats were making circles and waves around the boat. Later again the relative told us that the boat was pushed back to Turkish water by Greek authorities and then taken back to the port of Küçükköy by Turkish Coast Guards, leaving the people stressed out and the children in a state of shock. Once more, the Greek authorities have prevented people from exercising their right to international protection by putting their life at risk.