A new video shared by a Norwegian-run nonprofit shows the Greek Coast Guard pushing back migrants in the Aegean Sea and letting them adrift close to Turkish waters.
ADVERTISEMENTA video shared by a Norwegian nonprofit shows new evidence of the Greek Coast Guard pushing migrants back in the Aegean Sea toward Turkish waters on the morning of 6 October.
According to the group, Aegean Boat Report (ABR), a boat carrying 47 Afghans was sailing outside the island of Lesvos when the Greek Coast Guard stopped.
“The people in the small rubber boat tried the best they could to avoid being stopped, but a rubber boat was no match for a Greek coastal patrol vessel, and the Lambro 57, ID marking ΛΣ-602, stationed on Lesvos, eventually stopped the boat,” the group wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
ABR monitors people’s movements in the Aegean Sea and has produced previous evidence of the terrible treatment migrants are subjected to in Greece.
The footage shared by the group, apparently shot on a phone by one of the migrants, shows several masked men aboard the Greek Coast Guard vessel pushing the rubber boat with boat hooks.
“Usually they try to either destroy the engine itself, or cut off the patrol hose. In many cases they, instead of ramming the engine, [they] end up hurting the people in the boat, or damaging the rubber boat, that potentially could sink it,” ABR wrote.
The group then reports that all 47 migrants were taken aboard the Greek Coast Guard vessel and transported back close to Turkish waters, where they were “forced into two life rafts and left helplessly drifting, in direct violation of international laws and human rights.”
The nonprofit wrote that “this was done in broad daylight, in an area heavily guarded and monitored by the European Border And Coast Guard Agency Frontex, strangely enough, they didn’t see anything.”
The 47 migrants were then rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard.
Euronews has contacted the Greek Foreign Ministry for comment.
The recent footage shared by ABR is just the latest allegations against the Greek Coast Guard, which in February was blamed for the drowning of at least two migrants. In May, another clip showed the Greek Coast Guard illegally pushing migrants out of the country's borders.