Türkiye’s coast guard teams came to the rescue of 141 irregular migrants who were illegally pushed back into Turkish territorial waters by Greece, authorities said Tuesday.
The Turkish Coast Guard Command dispatched units off the coast of Karaburun, Seferihisar, Dikili and Menderes districts in the Aegean province of Izmir following reports of irregular migrants on boats, the agency reported.
As many as 111 irregular migrants were rescued.
Separately, teams pulled out of the sea 30 others off the coast of Ayvacık in the northwestern Çanakkale province following reports that a group was lost in an inflatable boat. The migrants were later taken to provincial migration offices.
Tuesday’s rescue operations came barely a day after Turkish authorities saved 134 asylum-seekers on Monday and 11 others on Sunday off the coast of the Muğla province.
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 (IOM) has recorded nearly 2,000 migrants as dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea this year alone.
A report by Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution said in July 2022 that Greece has pushed back nearly 42,000 migrants since 2020.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 16, 2022, the Turkish Coast Guard Command’s Aegean Command Station 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.
Athens consistently denies 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.
