The Turkish Coast Guard Command in the southwestern province of Muğla rescued 66 irregular migrants on Sunday in the Aegean Sea. Migrants were traveling on two rubber boats when Greek authorities forced them to turn back, a controversial practice known as “pushback.”
Coast guard officers intercepted the boats off the coast of Fethiye district of Muğla and towed their boats to safety. The migrants were then handed to the local migration directorate.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says Greece has made a “recurring practice” of alleged, secret, illegal and often brutal deportations back to Türkiye from two eastern Greek islands, citing 50 testimonies over the past two years from migrants.
MSF said in a report released earlier this month that the forced returns were said to have been carried out by uniformed Greek officers or unknown masked individuals. The report follows charges by charities, activists and Turkish authorities, who alleged similar actions in the Aegean Sea and at the northeastern land border with Türkiye.
Athens has strongly denied the pushbacks, arguing that its coast guard has saved hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa crossing in small boats from Türkiye. Greece says it needs to protect its borders, which are also those of the European Union, from mass illegal immigration. It has stepped up patrols in the Aegean Sea with the help of the European Border Surveillance Agency, Frontex.
In the first nine months of the year, migrant arrivals in Greece spiked to over 29,700 people, compared to 11,000 in the same period in 2022, according to figures from the Greek government.
