05/05/2024: 32 people taken by Turkish Coast Guards after being violently pushed back by Greek authorities

05.05.2024 / 10:04 / Eastern Med, Turkey

Watch the Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th May 2024
Case name: 2024_05_05-Eastern Med - 179
Situation: 32 people, including 11 men, 14 women and 7 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:
In the evening of the 5th of May, The Alarm Phone received an alert of a relative to a group of 32 people, including 11 men, 14 women and 7 children in distress north of Lesvos. We immediately alerted the authorities. Soon after, the relative contacted us again reporting that the boat was attacked, the people beaten up and forced back to Türkiye by Greek authorities. Then Alarm Phone received an email from Turkish authorities informing us that the people had been found at sea and taken back to Türkiye by the Turkish Coast Guards, leaving the people stressed out and the children in a state of shock.

Last update: 10:13 Jun 10, 2025

Sources

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1787394490430345384

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