Investigation claims Greek coast guard responsible for ‘dozens’ of mi

Eyewitnesses who spoke to BBC reporters claim to have seen at least nine migrants deliberately thrown overboard by the Greek coast guard over a three-year period, some of whom drowned.

In total, the BBC analyzed 15 different incidents that are alleged to have taken place between May 2020 and 2023. According to the investigation published Monday (June 17), these incidents resulted in a total of 43 deaths. The sources used for the analysis were “primarily local media, NGOs and the Turkish coast guard.”

One migrant, named as Ibrahim* in the documentary, claims he was shot at as he was coming ashore on the island of Samos, reports the BBC. Ibrahim also says he and two other men were later thrown in the water by the coast guard, the two others drowned, claims Ibrahim.

“They started with the Cameroonian,” says Ibrahim in the BBC film, entitled ‘Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?’. “They threw him into the water. The Ivorian said ‘Save me, I don’t want to die. Save me.'”

Another Syrian man told the BBC in the film that he had been part of a group of migrants picked up off the Greek island of Rhodes by the Greek coast guard. He too then claimed that they had been put into life rafts and left to drift in Turkish waters, reported the news agency Associated Press (AP).

In this incident, claimed the man, several people also died as one life raft sank before the Turkish coast guard came to their rescue.

Greek coast guard said actions in full compliance with international law

The Greek government and coast guard have denied the allegations made in the report. A government spokesperson told the BBC that the claims had not been proven, but stressed that every complaint would be investigated and conclusions drawn.

Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis told the BBC that the Hellenic coast guard “saved dozens of human lives every day,” and that he believed it was “wrong” of reporters to “target them.”

Marinakis continued: “Reality…has consistently refuted these claims for too many years.”

The Greek coast guard told the BBC that it works “tirelessly with the utmost professionalism, a strong sense of responsibility and respect for human life and fundamental rights.” They added that they were in “full compliance with the country’s international obligations.”

Also read: The EU countries accused of pushing back migrants

Despite the denials, the Greek center-left opposition party Syriza says it continues to call on the government for an “in-depth investigation.” Giorgos Psychogios from Syriza told the BBC: “We demand accountability, and the reason we do it is this. We care about all human life, and we cannot get used to the loss of human life.”

Psychogios said that his party had been accused of being “anti-Greek” and “Erdogan agents” and “provocateurs” by the Greek government for even asking questions about what might or might not have gone on.

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‘Obviously illegal’

The BBC investigation brings together several different threads, some of which have already been published, including by a New York Times investigation, which posted footage allegedly showing 12 people being loaded onto a Greek coast guard boat and then abandoned on a dinghy.

The BBC then interviewed a former senior Greek coast guard officer. At first, on camera, the former coast guard official denies that any wrongdoing has taken place. However, during a break from filming, while the cameras were still rolling, he can be seen getting up from his chair and speaking on the phone in Greek. According to the subtitles on the BBC film, the man can be overheard saying that what he saw was “obviously illegal” and an “international crime,” reports the BBC.

Also read: Frontex investigates migrant pushback allegations

The Turkish coast guard and Turkish-government backed news agencies regularly post accusations against Greece and its coast guard, claiming that they have carried out pushbacks against migrants at sea. The allegations are consistently denied by the Greek authorities, despite footage and eyewitness accounts often indicating the contrary.

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Also read: Frontex report suggests more deaths could have been prevented

‘Particularly horrifying’

The NGO Human Rights Watch told the BBC that brought together, the investigation’s findings were “particularly horrifying” but would provide an “addition to mounting and credible allegations against Greek authorities.”

HRW joined the voices calling for a full investigation in order to “serve justice to victims and to break the cycle of violence and impunity at Greece’s borders,” reported the BBC.

Another opposition party, the social democratic Pasok party told the BBC it thought its investigation “causes reasonable interest and concern for possible illegal actions,” carried out by the coastguard.

The Greek Council for Refugees declared that pushbacks were a “de facto policy for Greece,” and also called for the government and the EU to initiate an investigation.

Since the beginning of the year, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, more than 18,439 migrants have arrived in Greece, mostly arriving from Turkey, and some from North African countries like Egypt and Libya. Over 41,000 arrived during the whole of 2023.

*Not his real name, changed by the BBC to protect his identity 

With AP

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