12 June 2008

Greece: migrants boat sank by the Coast Guard

A rubber boat carrying 30 people was forced to sail to the Turkish territorial waters by the Greek Coast Guard which later opened fire on the boat and made it drown so that it cannot return to the Greek waters. The incident happened on the 10 June 2008. A private boat which was sailing in the region (between Didim coast and the island of Leros) by coincidence saw the people in the sea crying for help, began to collect them from the sea and called the Turkish Coast Guard which continued the rescue operation.The video was shown by the turkish television NTV. According to the report of Pro Asyl of 2007, the refoulement at sea is a common practice of the Greek Coast Guard. During a similar operation, on the 26 september 2006 8 people died.

Meanwhile a body was found in the waters of the Greek island of Samos on May the 20th. That could prove what we denounce in the May 2008 report, after we received a letter from a man who said he was the only survivors of the 22 passengers of a dinghy sank by the Greek authorities on May the 16th.