It was hailed as the biggest search-and-rescue operation in the eastern Mediterranean for a decade. But the bid to save hundreds of refugees on a stricken ship in the Aegean Sea has led to allegations that the operation bore all the hallmarks of an illegal pushback before the Greek coastguard was forced to change tactics. Only days after 382 asylum seekers disembarked on the island of Kos, criticism has mounted over their “unnecessarily prolonged” ordeal at sea. Dr Apostolos Veizis, who heads the humanitarian aid organisation Intersos Hellas, said: “These were men, women and children seeking protection and they should have been taken to a safe port after the vessel sent out a distress signal. “The nearest port was just a few miles away. Instead, they were kept on the vessel for four days, an unnecessarily prolonged period without access to basic services.” The Turkish-flagged Murat 729 had been heading for Italy when it ran into engine trouble off Crete and issued a mayday call on 28 October. Onboard were Pakistanis, Afghans, Bangladeshis, Syrians, Iranians and Lebanese – the biggest single influx of asylum seekers in years – taking a route that has become increasingly popular for Europe-bound refugees. More than 100 vessels, ranging from yachts to decommissioned cargo ships such as the Murat, are thought to have traversed the sea south of Crete this year. By 8.30am that day, Tommy Olsen, who runs Aegean Boat Report, a Norwegian NGO that monitors people movement in the area, had received the first pictures and videos from passengers asking for help. “You could see the boat drifting off the island and a Hellenic coastguard patrol alongside it,” he told the Guardian from his home in Tromsø, north of the Arctic Circle. “It was packed with people and the shores of Crete were clearly visible.” What puzzled Olsen, who claims to be contacted by people in distress – “the victims of pushbacks” he says – up to 10 times a week, was the refusal of local authorities to accept they had located the vessel. “Why Greek officials would insist they had not found the boat and then begin towing it away from Crete seemed very strange,” added Olsen, a veteran of migrant solidarity work on frontline Aegean islands. “It instantly made me think that what we were in fact seeing was not just another pushback but the biggest pushback in years.” Hauled in the direction of Turkey, the stricken ship spent the next three days being dragged across the high seas by the Greek coastguard. “Every hour I’d get the boat’s geo-locations and you could see it going back and forth,” he said. “From 2pm on Thursday until the early hours of Sunday when the passengers were permitted to disembark it travelled 500km [300 miles]. All that time people were sending messages that they weren’t even being given water and that some were very sick.” Greek authorities first acknowledged the Murat on Friday 29 October, saying it was in international waters off Crete and that Athens had appealed to Turkey to take it back. The freighter’s appearance had come against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the two countries over irregular migrant flows. Friction has risen as boats carrying migrants and refugees have set out, reportedly unhindered, from the Turkish coast despite Ankara agreeing to prevent illegal flows under a deal with the EU in 2016. Since March 2020, when Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, encouraged thousands of migrants to enter Greece – triggering a crisis that would see the EU scramble to reinforce its land and sea borders – the Aegean has allegedly become a theatre for pushbacks, with human rights groups claiming that thousands have been forcibly moved into Turkish waters before getting the chance to apply for asylum. “What is of particular concern in this case is that the government was attempting to return people who wanted to seek asylum in Greece before an asylum procedure had taken place,” said Minos Mouzourakis at Refugee Support Aegean, an NGO offering legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. “That is a breach of EU law and fundamental rights.” Pushbacks were among the issues at the top of the agenda when the Greek migration minister, Notis Mitarachi, held talks in Ankara this week. Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s centre-right government in Greece has vigorously rejected the claims about pushbacks – attributing them in large part to Turkish propaganda – but the leader accepts his administration pursues “tough but fair” border management policies securing the EU’s external frontier. Explaining the length of time needed to bring the cargo ship “to safe anchorage”, migration ministry officials in Athens laid the blame squarely with Ankara’s refusal to respond to repeated requests for the vessel to be sent back. But critics contend that the odyssey the refugees were subjected to, as the standoff unfolded, is also at odds with the Greek government’s version of events. Shortly after the asylum seekers were brought ashore, Mitarachi praised the Hellenic coastguard, saying: “Greece stepped up, providing immediate humanitarian support to people in need as we always do.” Aid groups, piecing together the sequence of events, believe it was logistically impossible to push the ship back because it was so big and would have required the Greek coastguard also entering Turkish waters. Once it became clear a pushback was impossible, Athens resorted to appealing to Turkey, said Olsen, whose organisation is among a network of NGOs accused by Greek officials of aiding and abetting people smugglers – allegations he strongly rejects. “We now know there were 136 children among the passengers and people with special needs,” said Veizis. “Instead of the Greek coastguard, which is a rescue service, bringing them to safety, the government chose to keep them onboard and move them around as it tried to come to a deal with Turkey. Deals are for business, not humans seeking international protection.” It was, he insisted, the lack of safe and legal passage to Europe that was forcing so many to seek such dangerous routes. Installed in their barbed wire-encircled reception centre in Kos, those onboard the Murat will be given the right to apply for asylum. The process is not expected to be easy: all must undergo 14 days of quarantine even if none, so far, have tested positive for Covid-19. On Wednesday, coastguard officials began taking their details. Already Mitarachi has made clear his intentions. Announcing a meeting with the ambassadors of Pakistan and Bangladesh next week, the migration minister said he would request the return of all who were undeserving of asylum to their home countries. Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals accounted for 252 of the ship’s passengers.