Alarm Phone Aegean Archive
"We were exposed to death" - pushback near Folegandros: 85 people pushed back and forced onto life rafts.
Sun Sep 05 2021
On the 5th of September at 10:32 CEST we receive information about a boat with 85 people on their way from Turkey to Italy, their engine is not working and they are near the rocky shore of the Greek island Folegandros. At 10:36 CEST we establish contact with the people on the boat. They say "help, help" but we cannot communicate further as we don't have a common language. While trying to find translation, we forward the information immediately to the Hellenic Coast Guard in Piraeus.
We tweet about the case.
Until 22:55 CEST we can not get further information from the coast guard nor are we able we reach the people on the boat. At 22:55 CEST the relative forwards us a media article which states that 80 people were rescued near Folegandros. We assume it's the group we are searching for.
However, this assumption is wrong. Some days later, one person from the boat tells us, they were pushed back to Turkey:
The Greeks came in a big military boat and took the people. We were hold on the Greek ship for more than a day. At some point, the Greek border guards switched off the lights of the ship and put all passengers on inflatable life rafts and let them adrift at Sea. This all happened in the dark. We were exposed to death. Then the Turks came and saved us.