The Turkish coast guard has rescued 201 more irregular migrants pushed into Turkish territorial waters by Greek authorities, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported Thursday.
Some 108 migrants who were adrift in rubber boats off the coast of Bodrum and Datça districts in the Muğla province were rescued. Authorities informed that three people, who allegedly organized the illegal crossing, were arrested.
In a separate operation off the coast of Izmir’s Çeşme district, security units found 61 irregular migrants after Greece turned them away, the agency reported.
Meanwhile, a group of 32 migrants struggling to stay afloat on a life raft near the Kuşadası district were pulled to the shore in the Aydın province, according to the local Coast Guard Command.
Türkiye is a critical transit route for asylum-seekers hoping to cross into Europe in search of better lives, especially those fleeing war and prosecution in the larger Middle East and Northern Africa. Both human rights groups and media outlets have widely documented Greece’s human rights breaches and violent anti-migrant policy.
Ankara too has repeatedly condemned Athens’ illegal practice of pushing back asylum-seekers, stressing that it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.
While the Turkish coast guard has come to the rescue of thousands sent back by Greek authorities, countless others died at sea as boats full of refugees sank or capsized, especially in the Aegean Sea where both countries share a border.
The International Organization for Migration has recorded nearly 2,000 migrants as dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea this year alone.
Just last week, Turkish authorities recovered the bodies of two migrant women near Aydın, the latest in a long list of people who lost their lives following violent pushbacks, and 81 more asylum-seekers who were lost on inflatable dinghies near the Çanakkale province.
A report by Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution said in July earlier this year that Greece has pushed back nearly 42,000 migrants since 2020.
Meanwhile, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 16 of this year, the Turkish Coast Guard Command’s Aegean Command Station has saved 47,498 irregular migrants in 1,550 separate cases across its areas of responsibility, over 18,000 of whom were victims of Greece’s pushback policy.
Greece has also been accused of deliberately collaborating in its clampdown on migrants on its borders with the EU's border protection agency Frontex, whose complicity was confirmed by several media reports and an investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) earlier in 2022.
Irregular migrants report that they have desperately waited for help in the middle of the sea after being mistreated by Greek elements in their statements to security forces after being rescued. Some migrants say having their valuables taken away, being left at sea in handcuffs and being subjected to violence and torture.
Athens has consistently denied the accusations despite abundant migrant testimonies, media evidence and international scrutiny. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government since coming into office in 2019 has vowed to make his country "less attractive" to asylum-seekers.
The migrant crisis in the Aegean and the broader Mediterranean remains unsolved.