Hundreds protest in Greece over migrant deaths.
Demonstrators accuse government of ‘pushback policy’
ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities on Thursday found seven more dead bodies near Turkey’s border with Greece, raising to 19 the number of migrants who have frozen to death at the frontier.
Turkey has blamed Greece for the deaths, accusing Greek border guards of illegally pushing the migrants back over the frontier. Greece has strongly rejected the accusation.
Turkish President Recap Tayyip vowed on Thursday to expose what he said was Greece’s illegal pushback of migrants at every occasion.
A statement from the governor’s office for the border province of dire said seven more bodies were found on Thursday. The state-run Anatole Agency said gendarmerie forces were searching the area with the help of drones and that medical teams were on stand-by.
Tacettin Sivrikaya, the head of the dire lawyers’ association, said the migrants were part of a group of 22 who were allegedly pushed back into Turkey. They were “thrown” into a river that flows between Greece and Turkey, he claimed.
“Their clothing and their boots were taken away,” he told reporters.
He called for collaboration with lawyers in Greece to find a solution to the migrants’ ordeal at the border, and said those responsible for the deaths must be brought to justice.
Turkey 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 — a key gateway to the EU for people fleeing war or poverty — by either crossing the northeastern land border or cramming into smuggling boats headed for the eastern Aegean Sea islands.
Turkey’s interior minister said Wednesday that 12 migrants had died after allegedly being forced back into Turkey. He said they were found near the border, “without shoes and stripped of their clothes.” One of the migrants was found alive, but later died in a hospital. There was no information about the migrants’ nationalities.
Hundreds of people protested in Athens after claims that brutal treatment of migrants at Greece’s border with Turkey had led to the deaths of 19 people.
Turkish authorities said the frozen bodies had been found close to the border last week, and alleged that the migrants had been stripped of their clothes and pushed back into Turkey. Greece denies the claims.
About 700 people marched to Greece’s Parliament on Sunday, carrying a life raft resembling ones allegedly used by the Greek authorities to push back asylum seekers trying to reach its islands from across the Aegean Sea. They held banners reading “Stop pushbacks and border violence”.
Human rights groups believe such actions, reported by migrants in different parts of the world, are designed to discourage them from trying to enter a particular country and to instead look for a different route.
Greece has consistently denied being involved in “pushbacks” – removing migrant boats from its waters – after a surge in attempted crossings from Turkey since March 2020.
The practice is said to sometimes involve boats blocking dinghies until they run out of fuel, upon which they are pushed or towed back into Turkish territorial waters.
The protest on Sunday followed a similar one the day before in Istanbul organized by Turkish humanitarian groups who marched to the Greek consulate in protest at the deaths of the 19 migrants near the land border.
Greece’s Migration Minister Otis, Mitarachi did not dispute the deaths, but dismissed Turkey’s version of events as “false propaganda”.
“These migrants never made it to the border. Any suggestion they did, or indeed were pushed back into Turkey, is utter nonsense,” he said.
Greece claims Turkey is turning a blind eye to people trying to reach Europe via its border, in violation of a 2016 deal between Ankara and the EU.
The agreement, which has been extended, involves the bloc handing billions of euros in aid to Ankara in exchange for Turkey agreeing to host millions of Syrian and other refugees.
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