(Athens) Greek port police released a video on Tuesday showing an inflatable boat loaded with migrants escorted by two Turkish boats “trying to steer it into Greek waters” off the island of Lesvos, the coast guard said. Greek.
Athens regularly accuses Ankara of allowing the departure of ferry boats from Turkish coasts to bring them into Greek waters, in violation of an agreement of March 2016, which provides for an effort by Turkey to limit migration to Europe, in exchange of financial aid from the European Union.
The video shows the “Turkish Coast Guard vessels making dangerous maneuvers to steer the dinghy into Greek waters” off the island of Lesvos, in order to “bring it illegally” into Greece, a statement from the guard said. Greek coasts, which rarely publish such images.
“Once again, Turkey has behaved like a ‘pirate state’ in the Aegean, violating its commitments to the European Union,” said Giannis Plakiotakis, the Greek merchant navy minister quoted in the statement.
A few hours after the publication of the video, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis again accused Turkey of “instrumentalizing” the migration issue, after an interview with his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, on an official visit to Athens. .
“Yes, we are intercepting boats (smugglers, editor’s note) coming from Turkey as we have the right to do according to European regulations and we are waiting for the Turkish coast guard to come and recover them and bring them back to Turkey”, he added. he affirmed by answering firmly to the question of a journalist on the refoulements of presumed migrants in the Aegean Sea, of which Athens is accused by certain media and NGOs.
“Rather than blaming Greece, you should put it on those who have systematically exploited the migration issue,” he added.
For his part, Mark Rutte affirmed that “the Greek government is trying to defend the external borders of the EU such as Italy, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia or Poland”, stressing that “the (migratory) situation is extremely difficult ”.
On the video of the Greek coast guard, AFP distinguishes two Turkish ships, one of which is maneuvering quickly in front of the boat loaded with at least fifteen migrants. We then see the Turkish boats turning back as well as the rubber dinghy, heading for the Turkish coast 11 km from Lesbos.
This video is published five days after a MEP visiting the Greek island of Samos, also near the Turkish coast, said on Twitter that the “potential refoulement” of five Somalis had been “prevented” on November 3.
Cornelia Ernst, German MEP from the left-wing Die Linke party, was part of a European delegation visiting Samos to investigate migration policy in Greece.
Numerous media and NGOs have published reports in recent months accusing Athens of alleged refoulements of migrants to Turkey, which Athens has always denied. The European Commission called on Greece in early October to investigate these allegations.
Cornelia Ernst tweeted that she discovered five Somalis “hidden” on the heights of this island, “fearing to be pushed back to Turkey”.
“It is clear to me that by finding them and physically handing them over to the Greek police, a potential refoulement has been prevented,” she tweeted, noting that she “read too many documented reports on alleged refoulements” from migrants in Greece.
Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi has announced an investigation into the case.