Greek coastguard threw over 40 migrants overboard to their deaths

The Greek coastguard is responsible for the deaths of dozens of migrants crossing the Mediterranean who were forced to turn back or in some cases were deliberately thrown overboard, an investigation has found. More than 40 people traversing the Mediterranean on small boats are said to have died due to the Greek coastguard’s activities, which included forcing punctured vessels to go back out to sea. Nine of those people are believed to have died after they were deliberately pushed into the water by coastguard officers, according to eyewitnesses from NGOs, local media and the Turkish coastguard, which often receive migrants turned away by Greece.

It comes just days after hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Athens on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of a shipwreck that killed hundreds more migrants off Greece, demanding answers about the causes of the disaster and the fate of relatives. Up to 700 migrants from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt were crammed into fishing trawler ‘Adriana’ bound for Italy from Libya that capsized off southwestern Greece on June 14 last year, even though the Greek coast guard had been monitoring it for hours. Some 104 people were rescued, but only 82 bodies were recovered.

The catastrophe, one of the worst Mediterranean boat disasters on record, raised searching questions about how the European Union is trying to stem flows of migrants – and the actions of Greece’s coastguard. The investigation, published this week by the BBC , found at least 40 migrants died due to the actions of the Greek coastguard in 15 incidents across a three year period between May 2020 – 2023. It spoke with several migrants who suffered maltreatment at the hands of coastguard officers and police, as well as others who witnessed the deaths of fellow migrants who were thrown into the water even after having reached land. A Cameroonian man who reached Greece told BBC investigators told how a man from the Ivory Coast drowned in front of him after being thrown back into the sea.

‘We had barely docked, and the police came from behind. There were two policemen dressed in black, and three others in civilian clothes. They were masked, you could only see their eyes. They started with the [other] Cameroonian. They threw him in the water. The Ivorian man said: ”Save me, I don’t want to die…” ‘Then eventually only his hand was above water, and his body was below. Slowly his hand slipped under, and the water engulfed him.’ A Somali migrant claimed Greek officers zip-tied his hands before shoving him into the water off the back of a boat, while a man from Syria shared how several children drowned after the coastguard left them near Turkey in damaged rafts. ‘We immediately began to sink, they saw that… They heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us,’ he told the BBC. ‘By the morning seven or eight children had died.’

Greece and Italy are among the most popular destinations from migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Many migrants from African nations embark on the trips from ports in Libya – where human traffickers have capitalised on the country’s instability. Those from the Middle East often attempt to make the shorter but no less perilous journey west across the Mediterranean from Turkey, having arrived there from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Turkey in 2016 inked a deal with the EU to stop migrants and refugees crossing into Greece in return for some €6 billion – later increased to €9 billion – to provide infrastructure and humanitarian aid to the migrants it accepted. Under the deal, Turkish authorities would prevent migrants from trying to reach Greece and accept the return of those who did.

For every migrant Turkey took back from Greece, the EU would allow one Syrian refugee in Turkey who had their asylum request approved to be permitted entry into an EU state. But in 2020 Ankara said the deal could no longer be enforced and began refusing to accept returns from Greece – a factor which may have contributed to the Greek coastguard’s alleged actions that resulted in migrant deaths. MailOnline has contacted the Greek coastguard for comment. Meanwhile in Athens last week, survivors of the shipwreck catastrophe of last year spoke of their ordeal – and how the experience still haunts them 12 months on.

Only 104 people survived the sinking of the Adriana, a rusty metal fishing boat smuggling up to 750 migrants from Libya to Italy. Although the vessel was clearly in bad shape, Greek officials were unable to evacuate the passengers before it sank. Those who survived the catastrophe claim the Greek coastguard botched an attempt to tow the boat, instead of trying to evacuate its passengers – an allegation Greek officials strongly deny. And EU border agency Frontex said the coastguard refused an offer to send a Frontex plane to monitor the migrant boat and provide further information to the coastguard. ‘I wake up to nightmares. Even now, I swear by God, my body still hurts,’ said an Egyptian survivor named Mohammed. ‘We, thanks to God, are alive. But where are the rest of the bodies?’

Around 1,000 people, including survivors and activists, marched to parliament in the Greek capital on Friday, holding up a banner depicting a collage of photographs of the missing. ‘We want justice!’ they chanted. ‘When do we want it? Now!’ Smaller rallies also unfolded in London, Paris and Berlin, while in the Pakistani city of Lalamousa, victims’ relatives prepared a memorial ceremony. 

Survivors say the coastguard caused the ship to capsize when it tried to tow the vessel in the early hours of the morning, while Greek authorities say the movement of migrants on board caused the overcrowded boat to tip over. A year on, a probe by a naval court into the coastguard’s role remains at a preliminary stage, frustrating survivors, relatives and rights groups. Pantelis Themelis, commander of Greece’s Disaster Victim Identification unit, said 74 of the 82 dead had been identified. But many more families from Africa, the Middle East and Asia have sent DNA samples to Greece for checks to no avail.

Hasan Ali, an Athens resident from Pakistan, said his brother Fahad was among the missing, and their parents back in Pakistan would not accept that he could be dead. ‘My mother and father are waiting for him,’ Ali said. ‘They say he’s alive, that he’s in Greece.’ In a joint statement, the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration called for ‘comprehensive and conclusive’ investigations into the circumstances of the shipwreck. ‘A thorough investigation is essential to secure justice for the survivors and the families of the victims and to help prevent similar tragedies in the future,’ they said. Last year, 3,155 people died or went missing trying to cross the Mediterranean, while so far in 2024 the toll has reached 923, according to those organisations.

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