Turkish coast guard saves 143 migrants pushed back by Greece

BY| DAILY SABAH

Coast Guard Command units in Türkiye’s western province of Izmir announced that they rescued 143 irregular migrants after Greek authorities pushed them into Turkish territorial waters.

After receiving information that there were groups of irregular migrants in rubber boats off the coast of Dikili and Seferihisar districts in Izmir, units were dispatched to the area and the migrants were rescued, said the Coast Guard Command.

In a separate operation, coast guard units stopped a rubber boat off Seferihisar after receiving a tipoff and held 31 irregular migrants.

All of the migrants were transported to provincial migration offices.

Türkiye has been a key transit point for asylum seekers aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

Human rights groups and media outlets have frequently reported on illegal pushbacks and other human rights breaches by Greek authorities.

Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called out Greece for its “persecution” of migrants in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.

“While we struggle to prevent other babies, like Aylan, from washing up on the shores, Greece is turning the Aegean Sea into a graveyard for refugees with its unlawful and reckless pushbacks,” said Erdoğan.

Aylan Kurdi was a 3-year-old Syrian refugee whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach in 2015, with his photo becoming the defining image of the global refugee crisis.

“The refugee crisis cannot be solved by sinking the boats of innocents who set out to seek a better future, leaving them to die, and by building walls on borders, and filling concentration camps with people,” he said.

“It is high time for Europe and the United Nations to put an end to these atrocities that constitute crimes against humanity.

“We expect Greece to shun its politics of provocations and heed our calls for cooperation,” Erdoğan said.

Besides its inhumane pushbacks of irregular migrants, Greece also pursues “discriminatory and oppressive policies” against the Muslim Turkish minority in Western Thrace, he added.

Türkiye hopes that Greece will stop these problematic actions and that international organizations, particularly the European Union, will stop turning a blind eye to its “inhuman and unlawful practices,” Erdoğan stressed.