Greek coast guard ‘sank migrants’ dinghy’
A GREEK coast guard vessel allegedly sank a rubber dinghy full of Syrian refugees, including women and children, according to Turkish fishermen who filmed the incident.
The footage, which was reportedly recorded a few days ago and obtained by Turkish media, suggests that the Greeks sank the migrant boat with some sort of “lance”.
The inflatable boat had just left the Turkish coast, just a few miles from the Greek islands of Kos and Lesbos, where thousands of Syrians and other refugees have landed in recent weeks.
As the Greek patrol vessel moved away from the area, one of the fishermen can be heard saying: “The boat is deflating, the boat’s taking on water and there are people on board.”
He then added: “The boat was pierced by what looks like a long lance.”
The footage showed migrants in the water as the boat gradually sank.
The fishermen went to the rescue of the Syrians – a group of about 50 – and then called the Turkish coast guard, which eventually took the refugees back to the Turkish coast.
The footage could not be independently verified. When the coast guard for the Greek island of Chios was contacted, a spokesman told The Daily Tel
egraph they were not aware of the incident.
The Greek coast guard said it had gone to the rescue of nearly 600 refugees and migrants yesterday and on Thursday, in 21 separate incidents off the Aegean Islands of Kos, Rhodes, Chios, Samothraki and Lesbos.
An unprecedented 125,000 refugees and migrants have reached a string of eastern Aegean Islands so far this year – a 750 per cent increase on last year.
The Aegean route has become more popular because Turkey has success- fully curbed traffickers’ attempts to send large numbers of refugees directly to Italy in so-called “ghost ships” – second-hand merchant vessels crewed by the smugglers and then left to drift towards the Italian coast.
More than 50 million people have been driven from their homes by wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and civil conflict and political persecution in Africa, according to the EU. “Today the world finds itself facing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War,” said Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s migration commissioner.
Speaking after a visit to Athens, he said the situation in Greece was “particularly urgent”.
Greece would soon receive a contribution of €30 million (£21 million) from a total disbursement of €2.4 billion of funding for EU member states to cope with the flood of migrants until 2020.
The money is intended to be used to build reception centres and accelerate efforts to deport migrants who are re- fused entry. The EU is pushing European leaders to agree to a distribution quota, but a mandatory plan was torpedoed by national leaders last month.
On Kos, where police used fire extinguishers and truncheons this week to control large crowds of refugees penned into an old stadium, a large passenger ferry has arrived to provide better accommodation.
Many migrants had been sleeping rough in parks and squares, in conditions that have earned the Greek au- thorities severe criticism from humanitarian organisations.
The ferry, which can accommodate up to 2,500 people, will be used as of today as a floating dormitory and screening centre where Syrians can stay as they wait for temporary travel documents to leave the island and head to Athens.
Islanders on Kos have donated food and clothing to the refugees, despite the acute economic crisis their country is going through.