The coastguard in Greece has caused the deaths of dozens of migrants over three years, including nine who were deliberately thrown into the water, a BBC report claims on Monday.
Based on witness accounts, the BBC report says the nine are among more than 40 people alleged to have died as a result of being forced out of Greek territorial waters, or taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands.
The Greek coastguard told the BBC investigation it strongly rejects all accusations of illegal activities.
Greece has long been accused of forced returns or push-backs- pushing people back towards Turkey, where they have crossed from, which is illegal under international law.
The BBC says it analyzed 15 incidents – dated May 2020-23 – which resulted in 43 deaths. The initial sources were primarily local media, NGOs and the Turkish coastguard. It admits that verifying such accounts is extremely difficult – witnesses often disappear or are too fearful to speak out. But in four of these cases, it managed to corroborate accounts by speaking with eyewitnesses.
In five of the incidents, migrants said they were thrown directly into the sea by the Greek authorities. In four of those cases, they explained how they had landed on Greek islands but were hunted down. In several other incidents, migrants said they had been put onto inflatable rafts without motors which then deflated, or appeared to have been punctured.
BBC: “Chilling account” of migrant experience in Greece
One of the most chilling accounts was given by a Cameroonian man, who says he was hunted by Greek authorities after landing on the island of Samos in September 2021.
Like all the people we interviewed, he said he was planning to register on Greek soil as an asylum seeker.
“We had barely docked, and the police came from behind,” he told us. “There were two policemen dressed in black, and three others in civilian clothes. They were masked, you could only see their eyes.”
He and two others – another from Cameroon and a man from Ivory Coast – were transferred to a Greek coastguard boat, he said, where events took a terrifying turn.
“They started with the [other] Cameroonian. They threw him in the water. The Ivorian man said: ‘Save me, I don’t want to die… and then eventually only his hand was above water, and his body was below. “Slowly his hand slipped under, and the water engulfed him.”
The BBC interviewee says his abductors beat him. “Punches were raining down on my head. It was like they were punching an animal.” And then he says they pushed him, too, into the water – without a life jacket. He was able to swim to shore, but the bodies of the other two – Sidy Keita and Didier Martial Kouamou Nana – were recovered on the Turkish coastline.
The survivor’s lawyers are demanding the Greek authorities open a double murder case.
Greece’s Coast Guard denies wrong-doings
The Greek Coast Guard denied the accusations in the report. Our staff work “tirelessly with the utmost professionalism, a strong sense of responsibility and respect for human life and fundamental rights”, it said adding that they were “in full compliance with the country’s international obligations”.
It added: “It should be highlighted that from 2015 to 2024, the Hellenic Coast Guard has rescued 250,834 refugees/migrants in 6,161 incidents at sea. The impeccable execution of this noble mission has been positively recognized by the international community.”
Last year, A New York Times (NYT) investigation claimed that Greece had abandoned migrants at sea in a scathing report by a major news organization regarding migrant pushbacks.
The footage, taken by an Austrian activist was brought to light by the NYT, which published the material, after being “verified and corroborated” by the US outlet.
Related: Greece’s Watchdog Finds No Evidence of Migrant Pushbacks