Greece’s push backs recorded by drone: Ministry

ANKARA

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) belonging to the Turkish Navy has detected a Greek Coast Guard vessel pushing back a boat full of immigrants in the Aegean Sea, the Turkish Defense Ministry has announced.

Uploading a video of the incident on Twitter on July 25, the ministry said, “The Greek vessel brought the irregular migrants from the direction of Rhodes Island and pushed them into Turkish territorial waters in the south of [the Aegean coastal district of] Marmaris.”

The ministry highlighted that the migrants were saved.

Greece has pushed back nearly 42,000 asylum seekers since 2020, according to a new report published by Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution.

According to the report, titled “Pushbacks and Drowning Human Rights in the Aegean Sea,” exposing the violation of international immigration law by Greece, Greek forces pushed back a total of 41,523 asylum seekers between 2020 and May 31, 2022.

“Some 98 percent of the pushbacks involved torture and ill-treatment, and 88 percent of the 8,000 asylum seekers who came to the Greek border were beaten,” the report said.