Greek coastguard 'threw migrants overboard to their deaths'

The Greek coastguard has been accused of causing the deaths of more than 40 migrants in the last three years, following an investigation.

Nine of those people died after being deliberately thrown into the sea, according to the BBC probe for its new documentary, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?

The BBC spoke to a number of people who claim to have witnessed brutality by the Greek coastguard between 2020 and 2023, including migrants who came ashore on Greek islands being taken back out to Mediterranean and thrown into the water.

The Greek coastguard has denied all allegations of illegal activity.

In one harrowing account, a man from Somalia told the BBC that after landing on the island of Chios in March 2021, he was taken back out to sea and dropped in the water with his hands tied behind his back.

The man said he was initially apprehended by the Greek army, then passed to the control of the coastguard.

"They threw me zip-tied in the middle of the sea,” he told the BBC. “They wanted me to die.”

The man reportedly survived by floating on his back, before eventually managing to free one of his hands. He managed to reach land where he was picked up by the Turkish coastguard.

Three people in his group reportedly died however, in the rough seas.

The BBC reportedly showed a former senior Greek coastguard officer footage of migrants being taken aboard a Greek coastguard boat, before being abandoned on a dinghy.

He reportedly commented that it was “obviously illegal” and slammed the actions as “an international crime”.

In one eyewitness account given to the BBC, a man from Cameroon described being beaten after he and two other men - one also from Cameroon, the other from Ivory Coast - landed on the Greek island of Samos in September 2021.

"We had barely docked, and the police came from behind," he told the BBC.

"There were two policemen dressed in black, and three others in civilian clothes. They were masked, you could only see their eyes.

“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 man described being attacked by the assailants.

"Punches were raining down on my head. It was like they were punching an animal,” he said.

He claimed he was then pushed into the water, with no life jacket.

He said he was able to swim ashore, but the two men he had been with died and their bodies later washed up in Turkey.

The man’s lawyers are reportedly calling on the Greek police to open a double murder investigation.

Another man, from Syria, told how his children died after the Greek coastguard allegedly ignored his family’s screams for help as their life boat began to sink.

The Greek coastguard reportedly responded after a boat, carrying 85 migrants including the man and his extended family, ran into difficulty near Rhodes.

The coastguard moved the migrants onto a boat before taking them to Turkish waters and loading them onto life rafts, the man said.

But he said the valve was not properly closed on the inflatable boat he and his family were on, and it “immediately began to sink”.

He claims the coastguard saw this and “heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us”.

"The first child who died was my cousin's son,” he told the BBC. “After that it was one by one. Another child, another child, then my cousin himself disappeared. By the morning seven or eight children had died.

"My kids didn't die until the morning…right before the Turkish coastguard arrived."

The Greek coastguard told the BBC its staff worked "tirelessly with the utmost professionalism, a strong sense of responsibility and respect for human life and fundamental rights".

It added it was "in full compliance with the country's international obligations".

“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,” said the coastguard.

“The impeccable execution of this noble mission has been positively recognized by the international community."

Thousands of migrants make their way to Greece every year, with the country acting as a major gateway to Europe.

According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 41,561 people arrived by sea in 2023. So far in 2024, around 18,500 people have made the journey.