The Turkish coast guard on Tuesday shut down allegations in Greek media that Türkiye “did not come to rescue of irregular migrants” near the Greek island of Lesbos where some five migrants drowned on Monday.
“Claims in Greek media and social media that the Turkish coast guard did not carry out a rescue operation when an incident involving dead migrants took place in Turkish territorial water in the northeast of Lesbos are wholly unfounded,” the agency said in a statement.
Four migrant children drowned off Lesbos, and one woman drowned in a separate incident off the island of Samos, all while trying to cross the sea from Türkiye, the Greek government said Monday. The Greek coast guard rescued 23 people in Turkish waters in the early hours of Monday, and four of them later died, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said. They were an 8-year-old boy and three girls aged 14, 8 and 11 months.
Neither Marinakis nor the coast guard gave further details on the incident.
The Turkish coast guard said search and rescue activities were “immediately” deployed when Greece reported that there were missing migrants at 5:45 a.m. local time on Monday.
A rescue boat was dispatched to the coast of Maden island in Balıkesir’s Ayvalık district and when it arrived on the scene, it found that the Greek coast guard had already taken all of the migrants on board its boat with the side number LS-080,’ according to the agency.
“There were no migrants left in the sea and the Greek coast guard personnel at that time were not conducting any rescue operations,” the agency informed.
It said it had sent two more coast guard boats after migrants rescued by Greece informed that a 7-year-old child was missing, in case the child was within Turkish territorial waters.
“It has been proven time and again that the Turkish coast guard command comes to the aid of irregular migrants in danger, regardless of the circumstances,” it added.
Greece is one of the European Union’s main entry points for migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Most asylum-seekers use Türkiye to cross into Greece.
More than 15,600 people have arrived in Greece this year, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 12,000 of them by sea.
But Greece has employed a notorious policy of pushing back asylum-seekers since the height of the migration crisis in 2015. Athens denies all allegations, despite claims to the contrary from alleged victims, rights groups, Turkish drones and even the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.
Similarly, many in the international community, including Türkiye, have frequently condemned the practice as a violation of humanitarian values and international law for endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants.
Greece has also been accused of deliberately and systematically cooperating with the EU’s border agency Frontex for the pushbacks, according to a 2022 investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
While the Turkish coast guard has rescued 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.
In June, hundreds drowned in international waters off Greece after the fishing trawler they were traveling on capsized en route to Italy from Libya.
