❖ An incident that allegedly happened on 27 February 2022 on Samos, when 12 asylum seekers arrived on the shores of Samos island, at Livadaki village. Later on the same day, they were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard from an inaccessible shore off Kuşadası, having drifted ashore after being left at sea by the Hellenic Coast Guard. ❖ An incident that allegedly happened on 27 February 2022 on Rhodes, when 15 asylum seekers, including children, were found drifting on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat off the coast of Marmaris, Muğla. ❖ An incident that allegedly happened on 27 February 2022 on Kos, when 22 asylum seekers, including children, on an inflatable boat with no engine were found drifting by the Turkish Coast Guard off the coast of Datça Muğla. ❖ An incident that allegedly happened on 27 February 2022 on Kos, when 18 asylum seekers on an inflatable boat with no engine were found drifting by the Turkish Coast Guard off the coast of Bodrum district. In relation to pushbacks at sea, Aegean Boat Report’s Annual Report for 2022 outlined that 1,675 boats carrying 52,163 people were apprehended by the Turkish Coast Guard and Police in 2022. 86 According to the report:87 ‘…In 2022, people arriving has increased 164.8%, compared to 2021. 476 boats made it to the Greek islands, carrying 11,496 people. Boats arriving has increased 158.7% compared to 2021, when 184 boats arrived, carrying 4,342 people. 26,133 people have been pushed back by Greek authorities. In 2022 Aegean Boat Report have registered 988 pushback cases in the Aegean Sea, involving 26,133 children, women and men who tried to reach safety in Europe. Over a third of them, 9,656 people, had already arrived on the Greek Aegean islands, arrested by police, forced back to sea and left drifting in life rafts, illegally deported by the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG), on orders from the Greek government, so far there has been no reaction from the EU on these illegal actions. Almost 60% of all boats picked up by Turkish coast guard in 2022 had been pushed back by Greek authorities. 60% of all pushback cases registered happened around Lesvos and Samos. 15,225 people have been pushed back at sea in 583 rubber boats, engines or petrol removed and left drifting, and in some cases even towed back to Turkish waters by HCG. In 384 registered cases, 9,656 people have been forced into a total of 575 life rafts, and left drifting in the Aegean Sea by the Hellenic Coast Guard, a systematic use of rescue equipment as a deportation tool”. In January 2023, Aegean Boat Report registered 88 ‘66 pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, performed by the Hellenic coast guard, 1,881 people, children, women and men, have been denied their right to seek asylum, their human rights have been violated by the Greek government’. In May 2023 the NY Times published a video89 showing asylum seekers on the Lesvos island, among them young children, being rounded up, taken to sea and abandoned on a raft by the Greek Coast Guard. European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson have sent a formal request to Greek authorities that this incident be fully and independently investigated.90 GCR also represents survivors in two pushback cases, after their arrival on the islands Lesvos and Kos, which are pending before the competent public prosecutors. The first one concerns the case of a group of asylum seekers, who were pushed back to Türkiye upon their landing on Lesvos island and after entering a government-run quarantine facility for refugees in Megala Therma in February 2021; and the second one concerns the kidnapping and illegal forced return of two recognized refugees who were legally residing in the Eastern Aegean Island of Kos. In both cases, the victims of the violent pushback operations 86 87 88 89 90 Aegean Boat Report, Annual Report 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/437xzEU. Ibid. 36 Life Rafts In January. Aegean Boat Report, ‘Pushbacks continues unhindered in Greece despite warning from Brussels’ 4 February 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/45ni5Oq. The New York Times, ‘Greece Says It Doesn't Ditch Migrants at Sea. It Was Caught in the Act’, Video Showing Migrants Abandoned at Sea, 19 May 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/43qWeEi. Ylva Johansson on Twitter, see: https://bit.ly/43gnx4d. 36