Witnesses say Greek coastguard threw migrants overboard to death

Over the past three years, the Greek coast guard has killed dozens of migrants in the Mediterranean, including nine who were deliberately thrown into the water, witnesses said.

A BBC analysis found that nine people were among more than 40 people who allegedly died after being forced out of Greek territorial waters or taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands.

The Greek Coast Guard told our inquiry they strongly reject all accusations of illegal activity.

A former Greek Coast Guard officer was shown footage of 12 people being loaded onto a Greek Coast Guard ship and then abandoned on a dinghy. As he stood up from his chair, with the microphone still on, he said it was “clearly illegal” and an “international crime”.

The Greek government has Long accused of forced deportation – Pushing people back to Turkey from where they were crossing, which is illegal under international law.

But this is the first time the BBC has counted the number of incidents where deaths were allegedly caused by actions by the Greek coastguard.

The 15 incidents we analyzed (dated between May and 23, 2020) resulted in 43 deaths. Initial sources were mainly local media, NGOs and the Turkish Coast Guard.

It is extremely difficult to verify such claims—witnesses often disappear or are afraid to tell the truth. But in four of the cases, we were able to corroborate the claims by talking to witnesses.

Our research appears in a new BBC documentary, Deathly calm: killing people in the Mediterranean?presents a clear pattern.

In five of the incidents, migrants said they were thrown directly into the sea by Greek authorities. In four of the cases, they explained how they landed on Greek islands but were hunted down. In several other incidents, migrants said they were placed on inflatable rafts without motors, which then deflated or appeared to be punctured.

One of the most chilling accounts is that of a Cameroonian man who said he was hunted by Greek authorities after landing on the island of Samos in September 2021.

Like everyone we spoke to, he said he planned to register as an asylum seeker on Greek soil.

“As soon as we docked, the police came from behind,” he told us. “There were two police officers dressed in black and three other officers in civilian clothes. They were wearing masks and only their eyes were visible.”

He said events took a horrific turn when he and two others – another man from Cameroon and a man from Ivory Coast – were transferred to a Greek coast guard boat.

“They have never [other] Cameroonian. They threw him into the water. The Ivorian man said: “Help me, I don’t want to die… In the end only his hands were floating on the surface and his body was underwater.”

“Slowly, his hand slipped into the water and the water swallowed him.”

Our interviewee said his kidnappers beat him.

“Punches rained down on my head. It was like they were hitting an animal.” He then said they pushed him into the water too – without a life jacket. He swam to shore, but the bodies of two others – Sidi Keita and Didier Martial Kouam Nana – were found on the Turkish coastline.

Lawyers for the survivors have asked Greek authorities to open a double murder case.

Deadly Calm: Killing in the Mediterranean?

In June 2023, an overloaded trawler capsized in front of a Greek Coast Guard patrol boat. More than 600 men, women and children died in the water. But who is responsible?

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

Another man from Somalia told the BBC that in March 2021, he was captured by Greek troops on arrival at Chios, who then handed him over to the Greek coast guard.

He said the Coast Guard tied his hands behind his back and threw him into the water.

“They tied me up with zip ties and threw me in the middle of the sea. They wanted me dead,” he said.

He said he survived by floating on his back before one of his hands broke free of the restraints. But the sea was rough and three of them died. Our interviewee successfully landed and was eventually spotted by the Turkish Coast Guard.

In the deadliest incident in September 2022, a ship carrying 85 migrants ran into trouble near the Greek island of Rhodes when its engine stalled.

Mohamed, who is from Syria, told us they sought help from the Greek coast guard, who loaded them on a boat, returned them to Turkish waters and put them into life rafts. Mohamed said the valve on the raft he and his family received did not close properly.

“Immediately we started sinking and they saw… they heard us all screaming, but they still left us,” he told the BBC.

“The first child to die was my cousin’s son… and then one by one they died. Another child, another child, and then my cousin himself disappeared. By morning, seven or eight children were dead.

“My baby didn’t die until the morning… just before the Turkish coast guard arrived.”

Greek law allows all asylum-seeking migrants to register their applications at special registration centers on several islands.

But interviewees we contacted with help from migrant support agency United Rescue said they were arrested before arriving at the centres. They said the men apparently operated clandestinely – without uniforms and often with their faces covered.

Thousands of people seeking asylum in Europe were illegally forced to return to Turkey from Greece and denied their right to seek asylum under international and EU law, human rights groups claim.

Austrian activist Fayad Mulla told us that he witnessed first-hand the clandestine nature of such operations on the Greek island of Lesbos last February.

After being notified, he drove to the location where he was allegedly forcibly deported and was stopped by a man wearing a hoodie – who later turned out to work for the police. He said police then tried to delete the dashcam footage of him being pulled over and charged him with resisting an officer.

Ultimately, no further action was taken.

Two months later, at a similar location, Mulla successfully filmed a video of his forced return, which was published by The New York Times.

A group of people, including women and babies, unloaded from the back of an unmarked van and walked along the dock onto a small boat.

They were then transferred to a Greek coast guard vessel further away from the coast, taken out to sea and set adrift on a raft.

We showed the footage to Dimitris Baltakos, the former head of special operations at the Greek Coast Guard – and this has been confirmed by the BBC.

In the interview, he refused to speculate on what the footage showed – earlier in our conversation he denied that the Greek Coast Guard would be asked to do anything illegal. But during a break, he was recorded saying in Greek to someone off-camera:

“I didn’t tell them much, did I? That’s clear, isn’t it. This isn’t nuclear physics. I don’t know why they did it in broad daylight… It’s… obviously illegal. It’s an international crime .

Greece’s Ministry of Maritime and Island Policy told the BBC that the footage was currently being investigated by the country’s independent National Transparency Authority.

One Samos investigative journalist we spoke to said she started chatting with a member of the Greek special forces through the dating app Tinder.

When he called her from what he called a “warship,” Romi van Balsen asked him more about his job and what happened when his unit spotted a refugee boat .

He replied that they “drove them back” and said the orders were “given by the minister”, adding that they would be punished if they failed to stop the boats.

Greece has always denied that the so-called “postponement” is taking place.

Greece is the gateway to Europe for many immigrants. Last year, there were 263,048 sea passengers arrived in Europe, Of these, Greece received 41,561 (16%). Turkey signed an agreement with the EU in 2016 to prevent migrants and refugees from entering Greece, but said it would no longer implement the agreement in 2020.

We submitted our findings to the Hellenic Coast Guard. It replied that its staff “work tirelessly with the utmost professionalism, a strong sense of responsibility and respect for human life and fundamental rights”, adding that they “fully comply with the country’s international obligations”.

The statement added: “It is worth emphasizing that from 2015 to 2024, the Hellenic Coast Guard rescued 250,834 refugees/migrants in 6,161 incidents at sea. The flawless execution of this noble mission has been positively recognized by the international community. “

The Greek Coast Guard has previously criticized for his role The largest migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean in a decade. In June last year, the Adriana sank in a rescue zone designated by Greece, killing more than 600 people.

Greek officials insisted the ship was not in trouble and was safely en route to Italy, so the coast guard did not attempt a rescue.