Published : 21-03-2021
At least three people died and one more is missing after the Greek Coast Guard dumped a group of asylum-seekers into the Aegean Sea, Turkish authorities said Friday.
The Turkish Coast Guard managed to rescue two asylum-seekers from Boğaz Island, located off the coast of Izmir, and two more from the surrounding waters, according to a statement by the governor's office.
The bodies of two more people were also recovered, the statement said.
The third person to die was one of the two saved from the water, who passed away at a hospital, it added.
"According to the asylum-seekers' initial statements, Greek officials seized their belongings, tied their hands using plastic handcuffs and threw them into the sea without any life raft or boat," read the statement.
Later, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu posted a video on Twitter showing scenes of the rescue and the asylum seekers in hospital.
One of them is seen with zip tie handcuffs on his wrists, while Muhammad, another asylum seeker, tells about the incident.
Saying that they went to the Greek island of Chios and stayed there for two days, he explained: "Then they took our cellphones and money and beat us up."
"There were seven of us ... and now there are three, I don't know where the other four are," he said, adding that he saw one person dead.
In 2015, at the height of the crisis, 856,000 crossed the Aegean Sea. This figure dropped to 173,000 the next year and to only 30,000 in 2017. In 2020, likely because of the coronavirus pandemic, just 10,000 crossed.
Turkey has accused Greece of large-scale pushbacks and summary deportations without access to asylum procedures, which is a violation of international law. It also accuses the European Union of turning a blind eye to what it says is a blatant abuse of human rights.
Pushbacks are considered contrary to international refugee protection agreements that say people shouldn't be expelled or returned to a country where their life or safety might be in danger due to their race, religion, nationality or membership in a social or political group.
Such actions prevent asylum-seekers from making claims for refugee status and if practiced indiscriminately against a group of migrants it can constitute refoulement – a violation of EU human rights laws and the 1951 Geneva Convention.
On March 3, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that Greece's practice of pushing irregular migrants back to Turkey amounts to a clear violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law.
At least three people died and one more is missing after the Greek Coast Guard dumped a group of asylum-seekers into the Aegean Sea, Turkish authorities said Friday.
The Turkish Coast Guard managed to rescue two asylum-seekers from Boğaz Island, located off the coast of Izmir, and two more from the surrounding waters, according to a statement by the governor's office.
The bodies of two more people were also recovered, the statement said.
The third person to die was one of the two saved from the water, who passed away at a hospital, it added.
"According to the asylum-seekers' initial statements, Greek officials seized their belongings, tied their hands using plastic handcuffs and threw them into the sea without any life raft or boat," read the statement.
Later, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu posted a video on Twitter showing scenes of the rescue and the asylum seekers in hospital.
One of them is seen with zip tie handcuffs on his wrists, while Muhammad, another asylum seeker, tells about the incident.
Saying that they went to the Greek island of Chios and stayed there for two days, he explained: "Then they took our cellphones and money and beat us up."
"There were seven of us ... and now there are three, I don't know where the other four are," he said, adding that he saw one person dead.
In 2015, at the height of the crisis, 856,000 crossed the Aegean Sea. This figure dropped to 173,000 the next year and to only 30,000 in 2017. In 2020, likely because of the coronavirus pandemic, just 10,000 crossed.
Turkey has accused Greece of large-scale pushbacks and summary deportations without access to asylum procedures, which is a violation of international law. It also accuses the European Union of turning a blind eye to what it says is a blatant abuse of human rights.
Pushbacks are considered contrary to international refugee protection agreements that say people shouldn't be expelled or returned to a country where their life or safety might be in danger due to their race, religion, nationality or membership in a social or political group.
Such actions prevent asylum-seekers from making claims for refugee status and if practiced indiscriminately against a group of migrants it can constitute refoulement – a violation of EU human rights laws and the 1951 Geneva Convention.
On March 3, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that Greece's practice of pushing irregular migrants back to Turkey amounts to a clear violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law.
