Since June 24, Türkiye’s coast guard have saved a total of 488 irregular migrants on overloaded boats Greece illegally pushed back in the Aegean Sea.
On Sunday, 84 irregular migrants were pushed into Turkish territorial waters by Greek naval forces off the coast of Ayvacık in the western Çanakkale province.
Three Turkish naval boats rushed to the area and rescued the irregular migrants revealed to be hailing from Afghanistan.
In another incident on the same day, Turkish forces pulled out 11 migrants pushed back by the Greek Navy off the coast of Karaburun in the Aegean province of Izmir.
On Friday, Türkiye saved 65 more asylum-seekers Greece turned back to the coast of western Balıkesir province’s Karaburun district where last Tuesday, 25 other migrants were rescued.
A day prior, the Turkish Coast Guard Command brought to safety 11 more irregular migrants pushed back to Turkish waters off the coast of Bodrum in the southwestern Muğla province.
On the same day, 29 irregular migrants were saved off the coast of Ayvalık.
June 26 marked other rescue operations, as a total of 134 irregular migrants were saved on two separate occasions off the coast of Ayvacık.
Some 31 irregular migrants were spotted on an inflatable boat off the coast of Muğla and 14 others were found floating near Ayvacık on June 25. The next day, the Turkish coast guard saved 31 more off the coast of Foça in Izmir.
On June 23, five irregular migrants were pulled ashore in Bodrum while 48 other refugees were saved off the coast of Izmir's Dikili district.
Meanwhile, the U.N. on Monday emphasized the importance of treating immigrants with respect for their dignity, in response to the incident involving 84 migrants Greece pushed back into Ayvacık shores.
"From our standpoint, we simply want to make sure that all nations treat all migrants with respect for their dignity and for their safety," said deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq at a briefing.
When asked whether Greece's actions violated international law, Haq said that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will deal with the issue.
Türkiye and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back irregular migrants, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.
Recent rescues came just weeks after an overcrowded fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in Greek waters, leaving at least 82 dead.
Some accounts suggest the accident might have happened when a Greek vessel tried to tow the overcrowded migrant boat into Italian waters.
Greek coastguards managed to rescue 104 people but 560 others on board may have perished, by some estimates.
The European Union's border agency, Frontex, said last week it had received "no response" when it offered aerial support to Greek officials before the tragedy.
Greece has also been accused of deliberately and systematically cooperating with Frontex for the pushbacks, according to a 2022 investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
The Greek government, too, 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. “In Greece, pushbacks at land and sea borders have become the de facto general policy,” the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe Gonzalez Morales, said last year.
A report by Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution said in July 2022 that Greece had pushed back about 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 jurisdiction, over 18,000 of whom were victims of Greece’s pushback policy.
In early 2023 alone, Greek coast guards pushed back hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Aegean, causing at least nine deaths in two shipwrecks near Türkiye’s western shores in March.
Recently reelected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has consistently vowed to make his country “less attractive” to asylum-seekers.
