Six migrants, including two babies, died at sea after Greece pushed them back into Turkish waters in the Aegean Sea, the Turkish Coast Guard said on Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, Turkish authorities also rescued another 73 people trying to reach Europe, off the southwestern province of Mugla, the coast guard said in a press release. According to them, the deportees were aboard four boats.
They were trying to get to Italy.
Their nationality was not immediately mentioned, but they would have embarked on Saturday from the Lebanese port of Tripoli to try to reach Italy, they said, citing the testimony of those rescued. They finally asked Greek authorities for help after running out of fuel off the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday, according to the same source.
“We were told that after being taken aboard a Greek Coast Guard ship and stripped of their valuables, (the migrants) were placed aboard four ships and set adrift near Turkish territorial waters,” testifies a Turkish coastguard in the press release.
Drama in the context of Greco-Turkish tensions
Athens and Ankara have more than tense relations and accuse each other of violating the rights of migrants. Greece admitted on Sunday that it has blocked the entry of more than 150,000 undocumented people at its land and sea borders since the beginning of the year, including 25,000 in the month of August alone. It is often chosen as the country of entry into the European Union by people fleeing Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life. Thousands pass through Turkey and then cross the Evros River, or try to cross the dangerous Aegean Sea, to reach Greece.
Athens has been repeatedly criticized by witnesses and NGOs for alleged illegal returns of migrants to Turkey, by land and sea, but has always denied the allegations.
Source: BFM TV
