Abandoned at sea: Video fully documents illegal pushback by the EU

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Refugees on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Lesbos

Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Those who seek protection have a right to asylum. That's what the Geneva Convention on Refugees wants, and that's how the European Union handles it. Actually. But in the past, SPIEGEL, among others, has been able to document several times how EU border guards illegally deport those seeking protection. Now, for the first time, a video by activists documents the whole process of such an illegal pushback of refugees at the EU's external border.

In the material, which was first reported by the »New York Times«, a group of refugees can be seen being taken away from the beach by masked people, first onto a rubber dinghy, then driven onto a boat of the Greek coast guard. Another shot then shows how the same people are released from the boat on a small, black raft in the middle of the sea. Shortly thereafter, a third video documents the rescue of the group – this time by the Turkish coast guard.

The twelve refugees were rescued in Turkish waters on April 11 after they had been sent back to sea from Greece.

The »New York Times« was able to identify the location of the pushback on the basis of geolocations of other ships visible in the video. The protection seekers were therefore abandoned about ten to twelve kilometers southeast of the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos, presumably still directly on Greek territory. A little further east, they were picked up by the Turkish authorities and taken to the Turkish port city of Dikili.

Two mothers, two men, several toddlers

The people seeking protection are refugees from Mogadishu, Somalia and Yemen. Eight of the twelve people are children, including several toddlers. They are each on the run with their mothers. In addition, two men were put on the raft. Both the men and the two mothers report that they each came to Lesbos in smugglers' boats and initially hid in the undergrowth of the island. Masked men then picked them up and brought them onto the Coast Guard boat.

The »New York Times« cannot provide any information about the persons. On the videos, it appears that at least some are wearing the official Coast Guard uniform.

"They said they work for MSF," one survivor told the New York Times. It soon turned out that this was a lie. "They took everything from us, money, phones, everything." Then the group was crammed into a van, had to crouch on the ground for hours – and was finally taken out to sea. "We didn't expect to survive the day," said one of the fugitives.

Illegal pushbacks for years

SPIEGEL has already reported on the illegal pushbacks: In October 2021, SPIEGEL published video footage showing Croatian police officers beating asylum seekers across the green border into Bosnia and Herzegovina. Further research also showed that the Greek coast guard intercepts refugees in the Aegean Sea with the help of the European border protection agency Frontex – and then abandons those seeking protection on unpowered life rafts at sea.

Actually, Greece is obliged under European law to enable asylum seekers who reach Greek territory to apply for asylum. Like many other countries, however, the country has been resisting this task for years.

As a result of the revelations, the head of the European border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, was forced to resign. Leggeri's successor, Dutchman Hans Leijtens, has promised that his officials will not participate in the pushbacks. However, Frontex has not broken off the joint operation with the Greek Coast Guard.

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