This week I was part of a European Parliament delegation of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to Greece that aimed at assessing the situation of migrants and refugees in Greece. As part of this visit, we arrived in Samos in the morning of the 3^rd November.

At the meeting with NGOs upon our arrival, MSF informed the Members of the European Parliament that there was currently on the island at this very moment a group of people being scared to be pushed back and who had called a hotline for help. They invited members to come with them to see by themselves what is the situation.

However, the tight programme of the mission was not enabling the possibility to go directly there. Being additionally informed that a group had been pushed back recently as MSF arrived too late on the site, I took the decision to go with the MSF team and informed all the members of the delegation that this was my individual decision and that I would be keeping them aware of the developments. Nobody objected to me going there.

Both a lawyer and MSF informed the authorities, including Frontex, the Hellenic Coast Guard and the police that they will be going to the area to look for people who had landed during the night and provide medical assistance. They informed them that they would be accompanied by a member of the European Parliament.

When we arrived to the GPS location given to the hotline by the group, three members of the MSF team went up to try to locate the people in need of assistance. However, they quickly came down telling us that the Greek police was already on the site and had told them that they could not proceed further and had to go back.

The MSF team went down to inform us that they were not allowed by the police to proceed further to the area. As a member of the European parliament, I decided to go with the MSF team to the police up and see if they would let us go through as I was informed that this was not a military area. Introducing myself, the first Greek police officer we met let us through without asking any questions, no police officer prevented us to proceed to the area after I had indicated I was a Member of the European Parliament. With me and my adviser, were the MSF medical team members and a lawyer.

There were at least 4 police cars in different locations on the site, two identified and two non-identified on the site next to a monastery high up in the mountains. Some police officers had uniforms, some not. It was unclear whether they were also trying to locate the people or surveilling us. A bit further an empty unidentified car was standing, we later found out that the car must belong to the two men we saw on site who had a blue uniform, balaclava masks and no insignia.

After searching and shouting for 15-20 minutes a group of four men and one woman came out of the bushes, saying they were all Somalis, and that they arrived during the night with 19 other people that they lost after the landing, among which were women and 3 kids.  The five looked frightened, being afraid to be pushed back to Turkey. After giving immediate medical assistance by MSF, they were handed over to the Greek police officers. They were very scared and we had to explain to them that they were safe now. It is clear for me that by finding them and handing them over physically to the Greek police a potential pushback was prevented. I have read too many well documented reports of push backs to believe that they would have been able to ask for asylum if we had not been there. I asked the police officers if they had found other people since this morning and they told us this was not the case. They seemed to be still looking for people.

As three kids were said to be among the group of the missing 19, we decided to go back with the MSF medical team and the lawyer to try to find them. However, after 40 minutes of search, it became clear they were not in this area. Also one of the Somali man had said that they had heard gun shots during the night. We feared that they had been pushed back already and saw a boat heading fast towards Turkey that could have had the people on board. I informed the delegation of the Parliament that we had found 5 people, that they would be coming to the camp to be in quarantine and that I would be joining them right away. Shortly after the van of the police left with the 5 people on board, we went to the camp in Samos thinking they would already be there. The 5 had not arrived yet – as they were probably questioned by the Greek police first in the police station.

On Thursday 4th of November we were informed by the Samos camp that only 5 people were admitted to quarantine on November 3. So there are still 19 missing persons (including women and 3 children according to the testimonies of the group we found). I asked the Hellenic Coast guard as well as the minister the following day where the rest of the group is, if they had records of boats arriving or leaving. The coast guard told us they had no information, the minister questioned the number given by the people and did not answer us about the remaining 19. Instead, he announced his intention to prosecute the lawyer who was with us through the attorney general.

In parallel, we have been informed that yesterday and today, various other groups have been pushed back or are at the process of being pushed back, see: https://aegeanboatreport.com/

By now, it seems highly likely the rest of the group, the 19 people have been pushed back to Turkey. We are trying to get in contact with the group of people.