Greek coastguard threw migrants overboard to their deaths, witnesses say

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

He said the coastguard had tied his hands behind his back, before dropping him into the water.

“They threw me zip-tied in the middle of the sea. They wanted me to die,” he said.

He said he managed to survive by floating on his back, before one of his hands broke free from the ligature. But the sea was choppy, and three in his group died. Our interviewee made it to land where he was eventually spotted by the Turkish coastguard.

In the incident with the highest loss of life – in September 2022 – a boat carrying 85 migrants ran into trouble near the Greek island of Rhodes when its motor cut out.

Mohamed, from Syria, told us they rang the Greek coastguard for help – who loaded them onto a boat, returned them to Turkish waters and put them in life rafts. Mohamed says the raft he and his family were given had not had its valve properly closed.

“We immediately began to sink, they saw that… They heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us,” he told the BBC.

“The first child who died was my cousin’s son… After that it was one by one. Another child, another child, then my cousin himself disappeared. By the morning seven or eight children had died.

“My kids didn’t die until the morning… right before the Turkish coastguard arrived.”

Greek law allows all migrants seeking asylum to register their claim on several of the islands at special registration centres.

But our interviewees – who we contacted with the help of migrant support body Consolidated Rescue Group – said they were apprehended before they could get to these centres. They said these men would be apparently operating undercover – non-uniformed, and often masked.

Human rights groups allege thousands of people seeking asylum in Europe have been illegally forced back from Greece to Turkey and denied the right to seek asylum, which is enshrined in international and EU law.

Austrian activist Fayad Mulla told us he discovered for himself how secretive such operations seem to be in February last year, on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Driving towards the location of an alleged forced return after a tip-off, he was stopped by a man in a hoodie – who was later revealed to work for the police. He said the police then attempted to delete the footage of him being stopped from his dashcam and charge him with resisting a police officer.

Ultimately, no further action was taken.