The Turkish Coast Guard Command rescued 19 irregular migrants from certain death in the Aegean Sea after their Greek counterparts reportedly pushed them back into Turkish territorial waters late Tuesday.
Irregular migrants from Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Congo, Eritrea, Djibouti, Gambia and Ethiopia were traveling in a rubber boat toward Greece, the gateway to the EU for thousands of migrants every year. The coast guard squads patrolling the sea near Ayvacık, a western town in the province of Çanakkale, rushed to their aid after the Greeks forced them into Turkish waters.
“Pushback” is a controversial and illegal practice, but Greece repeatedly engaged in it, according to reports by human rights organizations monitoring migrant flow into Greece that escalated in the past decade.
Europe has traditionally been receptive to migrants, but attitudes have shifted over the past few years. For instance, in Greece, anyone caught helping migrants to shore today may face charges, including facilitating illegal entry into Greece or assisting a criminal enterprise, under a 2021 law passed as part of Europe’s efforts to counter mass migration from the Middle East and Asia.
It’s one example of deterrents that have greatly reduced arrivals to Europe since the 2015 migration crisis, but that rights groups say risk the lives of those attempting to enter. Ten years ago, Lesbos, a tourist destination near Türkiye, ringed by quiet villages and tree-lined coves, became the first stop for half a million people headed for Europe from countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Lesbos residents helped them find food and shelter and the island became a hub for charities and aid workers and a symbol of Europe’s solidarity toward people fleeing war and poverty. Today, the island shows how far government responses have hardened against people seeking refuge in Europe.
In 2015, some countries initially welcomed the new arrivals, especially those fleeing Syria’s civil war. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to nearly 900,000 asylum seekers that year. But communities felt overwhelmed. Her ratings plummeted and today, anti-immigration policies are multiplying across Europe.
By 2024, irregular migrant arrivals to the European Union had decreased to around 240,000, less than a quarter of the 2015 levels, according to data from the EU border agency Frontex. Just 11,200 migrants arrived in Lesbos last year, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. When migrants arrive in Lesbos now, they are often intercepted by police as they near a coastal road used by holidaygoers. Charity workers require special permission from authorities to assist those in need ashore, or they may face fines or imprisonment. A new camp to house migrants is under construction in a pine forest on a remote part of the island. In the village of Skala Sikamias – which a decade ago was a frenzy of damaged dinghies, exhausted migrants and charity workers – tourists now dine on grilled fish while cicadas hum from the beachside pines.
The island’s tourism industry has recovered after a sharp drop. In 2024, the number of people arriving on international flights to Lesbos surpassed 76,000, according to Greece's tourism confederation, SETE, reaching levels not seen since before the crisis.
“The island is moving on,” said Panagiotis Christofas, the mayor of Lesbos’ main city, Mytilene. “The crisis is in the past for us.”
Not for everyone, though.
At around 2 a.m. on April 3, Beck Morad Sadeji was on a dinghy approaching the island with 30 other migrants from Afghanistan, including his wife of 55 years and his daughter, he told Reuters. The coast guard ordered the boat back to Türkiye, he said. However, as a coast guard vessel approached the dinghy, it destabilized the overloaded craft, which was carrying six families, including infants.
People fell overboard, but the coast guard staff watched for several minutes without helping, Sadeji said. Eight people, including his wife and a 2-year-old boy, drowned.
“If they had helped, no one would’ve died,” Sadeji said.
In a statement on April 3, the coast guard said it launched a rescue operation immediately when it saw the dinghy was taking on water. In response to Reuters requests for comment, it said the coast guard always acts “with professionalism and absolute respect for human life.” Since 2015, Greece’s coast guard service has saved 263,000 third-country nationals in danger at sea, it said.
Sadeji said he still has nightmares and urges other migrants not to come.
“Humans are supposed to help other humans,” he said. Migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, while far below 2015 levels, are still common. In the Eastern Mediterranean route alone, which includes Greece, 191 migrants died or went missing trying to reach Europe in 2024, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration, a U.N. agency. The IOM recorded 2,573 migrant deaths and disappearances on all Mediterranean routes last year. Greece has come under scrutiny for its treatment of migrants and refugees approaching by sea, including one shipwreck in 2023 in which hundreds of migrants died after what witnesses said was the coast guard’s attempt to tow their trawler. Frontex said in April that it is reviewing 12 cases of alleged human rights violations by Greece, including some allegations that migrants were pushed back across the frontier. In January, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which examines complaints against EU member states, found similar violations by Greece.
Greece denies that it violates human rights or that it forcefully returns asylum seekers from its shores.
Meanwhile, Greece’s center-right government is outspoken against refugees coming by sea. In July, the new migration minister, Thanos Plevris, referred to the arrivals as an “invasion.”
“We are worried about the rhetoric,” said Maria Clara Martin, the UNHCR’s representative in Greece. “People will demand more restrictive policies just as conflict is on the rise.”
Lesbos' change of response was spurred by a March 2016 deal between the EU and Türkiye whereby Syrian refugees who arrived in Greece from Türkiye would be returned back across the border. Greece changed from being a transit country on the route to northern Europe to a holding zone where migrants had to wait for their fate to be decided.
The EU wants more rigid rules. In May, the European Commission proposed an amendment to EU law that would allow member states to deport rejected asylum seekers to countries with which they have no connection. The proposal still needs approval by the European Parliament and the European Council, which represents national governments. In July, the U.K. and France announced stricter migration controls, and Greece passed a law temporarily halting asylum claims from migrants arriving from North Africa.
