Witnesses report that the Greek coastguard has been responsible for the deaths of dozens of migrants in the Mediterranean over a three-year period. This includes nine migrants who were allegedly thrown into the water intentionally. According to a BBC analysis, these nine individuals are among more than 40 people who have died as a result of being forced out of Greek territorial waters or being taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands.
In response to the investigation, the Greek coastguard has strongly denied all accusations of illegal activities. However, when a former senior Greek coastguard officer was shown footage of 12 people being loaded onto a Greek coastguard boat and later abandoned on a dinghy, he remarked off-camera that the actions were “obviously illegal” and “an international crime.”
The Greek government has faced longstanding allegations of engaging in forced returns—pushing migrants back towards Turkey, from where they had crossed—an act that violates international law. This BBC investigation marks the first instance of quantifying the number of incidents leading to fatalities attributed to the Greek coastguard’s actions.
The BBC analysis examined 15 incidents between May 2020 and 2023, resulting in 43 deaths. Initial reports primarily came from local media, NGOs, and the Turkish coastguard. Verifying these accounts is challenging, as witnesses often disappear or are too afraid to speak out. However, in four cases, the BBC was able to corroborate the accounts by speaking with eyewitnesses.
The research, featured in the BBC documentary “Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?”, indicates a clear pattern of these fatal incidents.
In five incidents, migrants reported being directly thrown into the sea by Greek authorities. In four of these cases, the migrants had already landed on Greek islands but were subsequently hunted down. Additionally, several other incidents involved migrants being placed on inflatable rafts without motors, which then deflated or appeared to have been punctured.
One particularly harrowing account comes from a Cameroonian man who claims he was pursued by Greek authorities after landing on the island of Samos in September 2021. Like all the interviewees, he intended to register as an asylum seeker on Greek soil.
“We had barely docked when the police came from behind,” he recounted. “There were two policemen dressed in black and three others in civilian clothes. They were masked, with only their eyes visible.”
He, along with another Cameroonian and a man from Ivory Coast, was transferred to a Greek coastguard boat where the situation took a terrifying turn.
“They started with the other Cameroonian. They threw him into the water. The Ivorian man pleaded, ‘Save me, I don’t want to die…’ but soon only his hand remained above water, and then it too disappeared beneath the surface.”
Our interviewee described being beaten by his captors. “Punches rained down on my head as if they were punching an animal.” He was then pushed into the water without a life jacket but managed to swim to shore. The bodies of the other two men, Sidy Keita and Didier Martial Kouamou Nana, were later found on the Turkish coastline.
The survivor’s lawyers are now demanding that Greek authorities open a double murder investigation.
