Greek coastguard threw migrants overboard to their deaths, witnesses say

The Greek coastguard has induced the deaths of dozens of migrants within the Mediterranean over a three-year interval, witnesses say, together with 9 who had been intentionally thrown into the water.

The 9 are amongst greater than 40 folks alleged to have died on account of being compelled out of Greek territorial waters, or taken again out to sea after reaching Greek islands, BBC evaluation has discovered.

The Greek coastguard advised our investigation it strongly rejects all accusations of unlawful actions.

We confirmed footage of 12 folks being loaded right into a Greek coastguard boat, after which deserted on a dinghy, to a former senior Greek coastguard officer. When he obtained up from his chair, and together with his mic nonetheless on, he mentioned it was “clearly unlawful” and “a global crime”.

The Greek authorities has long been accused of forced returns – pushing folks again in the direction of Turkey, the place they’ve crossed from, which is unlawful underneath worldwide regulation.

However that is the primary time the BBC has calculated the variety of incidents which allege that fatalities occurred on account of the Greek coastguard’s actions.

The 15 incidents we analysed – dated Might 2020-23 – resulted in 43 deaths. The preliminary sources had been primarily native media, NGOs and the Turkish coastguard.

Verifying such accounts is extraordinarily tough – witnesses usually disappear, or are too fearful to talk out. However in 4 of those circumstances we had been in a position to corroborate accounts by talking with eye witnesses.

Our analysis, which options in a brand new BBC documentary, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?, advised a transparent sample.

In 5 of the incidents, migrants mentioned they had been thrown immediately into the ocean by the Greek authorities. In 4 of these circumstances they defined how that they had landed on Greek islands however had been hunted down. In a number of different incidents, migrants mentioned that they had been put onto inflatable rafts with out motors which then deflated, or appeared to have been punctured.

Some of the chilling accounts was given by a Cameroonian man, who says he was hunted by Greek authorities after touchdown on the island of Samos in September 2021.

Like all of the folks we interviewed, he mentioned he was planning to register on Greek soil as an asylum seeker.

“We had barely docked, and the police got here from behind,” he advised us. “There have been two policemen wearing black, and three others in civilian garments. They had been masked, you possibly can solely see their eyes.”

He and two others – one other from Cameroon and a person from Ivory Coast – had been transferred to a Greek coastguard boat, he mentioned, the place occasions took a terrifying flip.

“They began with the [other] Cameroonian. They threw him within the water. The Ivorian man mentioned: ‘Save me, I don’t wish to die… after which ultimately solely his hand was above water, and his physique was under.

“Slowly his hand slipped underneath, and the water engulfed him.”

Our interviewee says his abductors beat him.

“Punches had been raining down on my head. It was like they had been punching an animal.” After which he says they pushed him, too, into the water – and not using a life jacket. He was in a position to swim to shore, however the our bodies of the opposite two – Sidy Keita and Didier Martial Kouamou Nana – had been recovered on the Turkish shoreline.

The survivor’s attorneys are demanding the Greek authorities open a double homicide case.

Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?

In June 2023, an overloaded trawler flips in entrance of a Greek coast guard patrol boat. Greater than 600 males, ladies and youngsters die within the water. However who’s accountable, and are the coast guard at fault?

Watch on iPlayer or on BBC Two at 21:00 on Monday 17 June.

One other man, from Somalia, advised the BBC how in March 2021 he had been caught by the Greek military on arrival on the island of Chios, who then handed him to the Greek coastguard.

He mentioned the coastguard had tied his fingers behind his again, earlier than dropping him into the water.

“They threw me zip-tied in the course of the ocean. They wished me to die,” he mentioned.

He mentioned he managed to outlive by floating on his again, earlier than one in all his fingers broke free from the ligature. However the sea was uneven, and three in his group died. Our interviewee made it to land the place he was ultimately noticed by the Turkish coastguard.

Within the incident with the very best lack of life – in September 2022 – a ship carrying 85 migrants bumped into bother close to the Greek island of Rhodes when its motor reduce out.

Mohamed, from Syria, advised us they rang the Greek coastguard for assist – who loaded them onto a ship, returned them to Turkish waters and put them in life rafts. Mohamed says the raft he and his household got had not had its valve correctly closed.

“We instantly started to sink, they noticed that… They heard us all screaming, and but they nonetheless left us,” he advised the BBC.

“The primary little one who died was my cousin’s son… After that it was one after the other. One other little one, one other little one, then my cousin himself disappeared. By the morning seven or eight kids had died.

“My youngsters did not die till the morning… proper earlier than the Turkish coastguard arrived.”

Greek regulation permits all migrants in search of asylum to register their declare on a number of of the islands at particular registration centres.

However our interviewees – who we contacted with the assistance of migrant assist physique Consolidated Rescue Group – mentioned they had been apprehended earlier than they might get to those centres. They mentioned these males could be apparently working undercover – non-uniformed, and sometimes masked.

Human rights teams allege 1000’s of individuals in search of asylum in Europe have been illegally compelled again from Greece to Turkey and denied the precise to hunt asylum, which is enshrined in worldwide and EU regulation.

Austrian activist Fayad Mulla advised us he found for himself how secretive such operations appear to be in February final yr, on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Driving in the direction of the placement of an alleged compelled return after a tip-off, he was stopped by a person in a hoodie – who was later revealed to work for the police. He mentioned the police then tried to delete the footage of him being stopped from his dashcam and cost him with resisting a police officer.

In the end, no additional motion was taken.

Two months later, in an identical place, Mr Mulla managed to movie a compelled return, revealed by The New York Instances.

A gaggle which included ladies and infants was unloaded from the again of an unmarked van and marched down a jetty onto a small boat.

They had been then transferred onto a Greek coastguard vessel additional away from the shoreline, taken out to sea, after which put onto a raft the place they had been left to float.

We confirmed this footage – which the BBC has verified – to Dimitris Baltakos, the previous head of particular operations with the Greek coastguard.

In the course of the interview, he refused to invest about what the footage confirmed – having denied, earlier in our dialog, that the Greek coastguard would ever be required to do something unlawful. However throughout a break, he was recorded telling somebody out of shot in Greek:

“I have not advised them a lot, proper? It’s extremely clear, is not it. It is not nuclear physics. I do not know why they did it in broad daylight… It is… clearly unlawful. It is a global crime.”

Greece’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Coverage advised the BBC the footage is at the moment being investigated by the nation’s unbiased Nationwide Transparency Authority.

An investigative journalist we spoke to based mostly on the island of Samos says she started chatting with a member of the Greek particular forces by way of the courting app Tinder.

When he rang her from what he described as a “warship”, Romy van Baarsen requested him extra about his work – and what occurred when his forces noticed a refugee boat.

He replied that they “drive them again”, and mentioned such orders had been “from the minister”, including they might be punished in the event that they didn’t cease a ship.

Greece has all the time denied so-called “pushbacks” are going down.

Greece is an entryway into Europe for a lot of migrants. Final yr, there have been 263,048 sea arrivals in Europe, with Greece receiving 41,561 (16%) of these. Turkey signed a cope with the EU in 2016 to cease migrants and refugees crossing into Greece, however mentioned in 2020 it might not implement it.

We put the findings in our investigation to the Greek coastguard. It replied that its workers labored “tirelessly with the utmost professionalism, a powerful sense of accountability and respect for human life and elementary rights”, including that they had been “in full compliance with the nation’s worldwide obligations”.

It added: “It must be highlighted that from 2015 to 2024, the Hellenic Coast Guard has rescued 250,834 refugees/migrants in 6,161 incidents at sea. The impeccable execution of this noble mission has been positively acknowledged by the worldwide group.”

The Greek coastguard has beforehand been criticised for its role within the greatest migrant shipwreck within the Mediterranean for a decade. Greater than 600 persons are feared to have died after the Adriana sank in Greece’s demarcated rescue space final June.

Greek officers have insisted the boat was not in bother and was safely on its technique to Italy, and so the coastguard didn’t try a rescue.