*This article was updated on November 21 to include a comment by the Greek government.

The Greek coast guard recovered the body of a woman during a rescue operation off the island of Agathonisi, close to the Turkish coast on Friday (November 17). According to the coast guard, the woman was in the water and unconscious when she was found. She was taken to hospital on the island of Samos where she was declared dead.

Eighteen other migrants, including several who were already in the water, were rescued by Greek authorities. Another woman was rescued later by the Turkish coast guard and handed over to a Greek patrol boat.

All were then transferred to Samos.

The number of migrants trying to reach Greece by boat has increased this year, after a general decline in recent years. So far in 2023 nearly 40,000 people have arrived in the country, mostly crossing from Turkey by sea, according to data from United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.

Smugglers arrested

Another migrant boat with 41 migrants on board reached Vravona, southeast of Athens on Friday. Authorities arrested and charged three men with smuggling: two Egyptian nationals were arrested on the yacht that had been used to transport the migrants and a Syrian national was arrested near Athens, the coast guard said.

The yacht, which had been flying the Sierra Leone flag, had set out from Cesme in Turkey, according to the coast guard. After the migrants had disembarked, the yacht was pursued by the coast guard, which caught up with it near the island of Kea.

The news site Ekathimerini reported on Sunday that the Syrian man had admitted that he had been working for a smuggling ring for about two years and was being paid €1,500 a month for his work. He told coast guard officers who questioned him that the ringleader lived in Germany and traveled to Greece about once a month, Ekathimerini reported.

According to a statement by the coast guard, the migrants who arrived at Vravrona on Friday said the journey had cost them €5,000 each.

Video – pushback by masked men

There have been more reports by refugee aid groups in recent days of migrants being mistreated and pushed back by Greek authorities at sea.

Greece insists that it has never carried out pushbacks, which are illegal under the Refugee Convention because they violate the principle of non-refoulement – the return of people to a state where their life or freedom could be in danger.

But aid groups, NGOs and Turkish authorities have long accused Greece of carrying out the practice in the Aegean Sea and at the land border with Turkey. A recent report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said abusive pushbacks of migrants arriving from Turkey had been "normalized" by Greek and EU authorities.

On Saturday Alarm Phone, an emergency hotline used by migrants in distress, said it had received alerts from two groups who reported that the coast guard had stolen their motors and pushed them back into Turkish waters.

Another NGO, Aegean Boat Report (ABR) published a video of what it said was pushback last Monday (November 13) north of Lesbos, filmed by one of the passengers on the boat. According to ABR, a rubber boat carrying 23 Afghans, mostly families with children, was stopped by a Greek coast guard vessel.

The footage, which could not be verified by InfoMigrants, appears to show masked men with a long boat hook, and screams of fear can be heard from people in the rubber dinghy.

ABR says the masked men used the metal-tipped boat hook to destroy the engine of the migrant boat, injuring several people in the process. According to its account, the Afghans were taken on board the coast guard vessel and made to hand over their phones, money and other valuables. Those who refused were beaten. All phones except the one used to film the incident – which its owner managed to hide – were thrown into the sea.

After two hours on board the coast guard vessel, the migrants were put back into the rubber boat, and left adrift, according to ABR. They used the hidden phone to contact rescue services and the Turkish coast guard later came to their rescue.

Greek ministry denies illegal actions

A press spokesperson from the Greek Ministry of Maritime and Insular Policy wrote in reply to InfoMigrants’ request for comment on ABR’s claims, saying that coast guard officers "operate around the clock with efficiency, a high sense of responsibility, professionalism, but also absolute respect for human life and human rights."

"Their actions are in line with the country's international obligations, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue."

The spokesperson said the Greek coast guard is internationally recognized for its humanitarian work. 

"Regarding allegations of alleged illegal acts, we must emphasize that the operational practices of the Greek authorities do not include such methods."

"In any case, however, in cooperation with the legal authorities and other competent bodies, there are relevant control mechanisms, where needed."

With Reuters, ANA-MPA

The original email from the Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy was in Greek and was translated into English with Google.