A Cameroonian asylum seeker accuses the Greek coast guard of having thrown him and two other men who drowned in the sea during a push-back operation to Turkey off the island of Samos, in Aegean Sea, last September, reveal several European media, Thursday, February 17.
This man, presented as Ibrahim and as being a former Cameroonian navy, explained that the Greek coast guard had hit them “with fists” before the “throw into the sea” without dinghy or lifejacket, according to Der Spiegel (in German)Mediapart, The Guardianas well as the collaborative journalism organization Lighthouse Reports, based in the Netherlands.
The bodies of the two victims, the Ivorian Sidy Keita and the Cameroonian Didier Martial Kouamou Nana, were found by Turkish coastguards and pleasure boats on September 18 and 20. Ibrahim, who has since applied for asylum in Greece, had managed to swim to the Turkish coast opposite Samos.
On September 14, he, along with 35 other people, boarded an inflatable boat to reach the Greek island from the Turkish coast. Arrived on the island, several members of the group suffered violence from the Greek coast guard and had their mobile phones and money confiscated, according to several testimonies collected by these media.
Some claim to have undergone excavations in the anus and vagina. The three men were later forced to board a boat presented as that of the Samos coastguard before being thrown into the sea. Questioned by these media, the Greek coastguard has a new once denied any illegal practice.
According to Der Spiegel, Greek lawyers are preparing a complaint while Turkish lawyers have lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights. Several NGOs regularly accuse Greece of ill-treatment in migrant camps and illegal push-backs at its border, which the Athens government systematically denies.