145 migrants abandoned on an islet near the Turkish border rescued by the authorities

The Greek authorities rescued, Thursday, June 22, 145 migrants stranded on an islet in the Evros river which marks the border with neighboring Turkey, the usual passage for people fleeing war and poverty to Europe.

According to a unit of the Greek section of the Red Cross present in the operation, the migrants, including 45 women and 30 children, are in good health, said the Greek news agency, Ana. The migrants, whose identity has not been revealed for the moment, were abandoned on this islet by traffickers from Turkey, according to a press release from the Greek police. “This is not the first time that smugglers push migrants into Greek territory”said Panayiotis Harelas, president of the Greek border guards.

Migration dramas in the region

At the EU’s external borders, Athens often accuses Ankara of letting migrants cross into Greece. At the beginning of June during a similar operation in the same area, 91 people including many Yazidis – a Kurdophone minority living mainly in Iraq – had been rescued by the Greek authorities. Thousands of migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have entered Greece in recent years from the sea and land borders with Turkey.

The migratory dramas continue in this region of the eastern Mediterranean: on June 14, an old boat capsized and sank off Pylos in the Peloponnese (south) drowning 82 people while “hundreds” others are said to be missing, according to testimonies from some of the 104 survivors.