ANKARA: The bodies of 12 migrants who froze to death were found near Turkey’s border with Greece, the Turkish interior minister said Wednesday, accusing Greek border guards of pushing them back over the frontier.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said tweeted that the 12 were among 22 migrants who were pushed back into Turkey by Greek border guards. He said they were found near the Ipsala border crossing between Turkey and Greece “without shoes and stripped of their clothes.”
The minister didn’t provide further details, but shared blurred photographs of eight of the recovered bodies, including three in shorts and T-shirts.
Soylu accused Greek border units of acting as “thugs” toward migrants while showing sympathy toward members of a network — which Turkey says is behind a 2016 failed military coup — who have escaped to Greece.
He also accused the European Union of being “helpless, weak and inhumane.”
The governor’s office for Edirne province, near the land border with Greece, said the deceased included a migrant who died in a hospital after being rescued by Turkish authorities.
Turkey frequently accuses neighboring Greece of illegally pushing back migrants wanting to make their way into Europe. Greece denies accusations that it carries out so-called pushbacks that prevent migrants from applying for international protection.
Turkey, which hosts about 3.7 million Syrian refugees, is a major crossing point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in European Union countries.
Most try to cross into Greece by either crossing the northeastern land border or cramming into smuggling boats headed for the eastern Aegean Sea islands.
Recently, smuggling gangs have even been piling migrants into yachts heading from Turkey to Italy. Dozens of migrants have died in the central Aegean last month.
Turkey: 12 migrants freeze to death after Greece pushback
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Turkey: 12 migrants freeze to death after Greece pushback
- Turkey, which hosts about 3.7 million Syrian refugees, is a major crossing point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa
Migrant charities call on Italy to ID dead washed ashore
- Local news reports in recent days have indicated that approximately a dozen bodies of migrants, many in an advanced stage of decomposition, had been discovered on various southern Italian beaches
ROME: Italian migrant charities called on authorities Friday to promptly identify the dead migrants whose bodies have washed up on Italy’s shores in recent weeks following Cyclone Harry.
The non-profit groups said they had urged national and local authorities to “immediately activate all necessary procedures for the identification of bodies recovered along the Sicilian and Calabrian coasts... in order to provide answers to the many families searching for their loved ones.”
The groups Memoria Mediterranea, the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and Mediterranea Saving Humans joined with European organization Alarm Phone — whose hotline accepts distress calls from migrants at sea — in calling for swift action.
Local news reports in recent days have indicated that approximately a dozen bodies of migrants, many in an advanced stage of decomposition, had been discovered on various southern Italian beaches.
In a statement, the groups said hundreds of people departed from the eastern Tunisian city of Sfax in January, many of them between January 14 and 21, when Cyclone Harry hit the central Mediterranean.
“According to reports from the organizations Mediterranea, Refugees in Libya, and Alarm Phone, more than ten boats departed during that period, with an estimated total of at least 1,000 people missing at sea,” said the groups.
“To date, only one of the boats is known to have reached (the Italian island) Lampedusa, while there is no news of the others.”
Both Alarm Phone and Memoria Mediterranea have received “numerous reports” from anxious loved ones of migrants believed to have departed from the Tunisian coast during that period.
Many migrants perish while risking the dangerous central Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Italy. At least 567 lives have been lost so far this year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
