Z FRONTEX EI
EUROPEAN BORDER AND COAST GUARD AGENCY
Serious Incident Report no. 676
Reporting date: 12/12/2017 10:54 AM
Text Removed -
Reporting person: Justification 1
FSC SIR Category
Subject
Type of SIR
JORA Incident number (if any)
Joint Operation
Frontex SIR Coordinator
Incident date/time
Detection date/time
Original source of the information
Location of the incident
Is latitude unknown
Latitude
Is longitude unknown
Longitude
Reference to the operational area
Frontex resources involved (Human resources /
co-financed technical equipment)
Type of resources / involvement
Dead persons
Injured persons
Missing persons
Warsaw, 17/05/2019
Last modification date:
Last modification done by:
2 Fundamental Rights
Alleged violation of fundamental rights -
unprocessed return
2 Formal SIR
FOA 2017 land on border surveillance /
SE
FRO
11/12/2017 04:40 PM
11/12/2017 04:40 PM
Text Removed - Justification 5
/ Turkish media articles
Alleged Evros River
Yes
Yes
No
No
Information/allegations
On 09 December 2017 the article from Turkish news magazine Milliet was provided to Text
Removed - Justification 5 regarding to alleged unprocessed return of irregular migrants.
The original translated text mentions: Irregulars sent back by Greece crossed over to Turkey
in a boat. Irregulars in Edirne, illegally crossing over to Greece, were captured and beaten at
the border by the Greek police, and then sent back to Turkey in a boat. Recording on a
mobile their return on a boat on the River Maritza (Evros), the irregulars said they had been
exposed to violence by the Greek police. ... 4 irregulars --one a woman-- recorded on their
mobile phones, the footage of them being sent back by the Greek police, which is claimed to
have beaten up the asylum seekers crossing into their country irregularly. According to the
claims of the irregulars, who use the River Maritza to illegally cross to the Greek side, they
had been exposed to violence by the Greek police, then were placed in a boat and sent off
to Turkey. The video footage shows that
returning back to Turkey in a boat, the irregulars are helped out by the villagers to the shore
and then were taken into custody by the border patrol. After a medical check, whereby it is
determined that they had been battered, the irregulars were then handed over to Edirne
Migration Management Directorate for the completion of procedures.
Measures
Text Removed - Justification 5 Greece has been adressed by the operational team with the request
for possible information on the allegation.
Assessment
The article does not provide concrete information on the date or the exact location where
the alleged incident has taken place and at the same time, there is no mention of presence
of Frontex deployed TM and assets. The photos in the article show one wooden boat (a
typical fisherman boat in the area) with 5 persons in civilian clothes inside. There are no
visible signs that these persons are law enforcement officers (i.e. no weapons are visible); it
is not possible to identify from the photos which side of Evros river the photos were taken
from (if at all the photos are from Evros river). Source:
http: / /www.milliyet.com.tr/yunanistan-in-geri-gonderdigi-gundem-2569546/ e
The video available (http: //aa.com.tr/tr/vg/video-galeri/yunanistan-kacaklari-illegal-geri-
itiyor-) also does not provide support to the allegation since it only shows one boat
approaching a river bank but no signs of verbal or physical violence are present.
Within the established coordination structure for the JO no such information has been
received.
Final outcome
