More than 1,000 refugees were abandoned at the edge of Greece's water territory by Greek officials in the past few months, The New York Times reported.
The migrants were left on inflatable and in some instances overloaded life rafts.
These expulsions are illegal under international law.
Greece has denied doing anything illegal.
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At least 1,072 migrants were sailed to the edge of Greece's water territory on inflatable life rafts and abandoned by Greek authorities, The New York Times reported.
The Times analyzed evidence from multiple sources, including academic researchers, the Turkish Coast Guard, and independent watchdogs groups. They found that there were at least 31 different incidents of these expulsions in the past few months.
Najma al-Khatib, a 50-year-old Syrian teacher told The Times that on July 26, she and 22 others including babies were taken by masked Greek officials from a detention center on the island of Rhodes while it was dark outside. She told The Times they were left on a "rudderless, motorless life raft" and were later rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard.
"I left Syria for fear of bombing — but when this happened, I wished I'd died under a bomb," she told The Times.
The Guardian reported last month that Greece was gearing up to handle an increase of migrants from Turkey after the country arrested six smugglers.
Earlier this year, Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to release hundreds of thousands of refugees into Europe in the midst of ongoing tensions between Turkey and the EU. The EU border agency said that Erdogan's threats prompted additional defense along Greece's land and sea borders, the Guardian reported.
However, The Times reports that the move to abandon migrants at sea is illegal under international law.
"These pushbacks are totally illegal in all their aspects, in international law and in European law," François Crépeau, former United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and professor of law at the Faculty of Law at McGill University, told The Times.
"It is a human rights and humanitarian disaster," Crépeau said.
Greece has denied that they've done anything illegal.
"Greek authorities do not engage in clandestine activities,'' said a government spokesman, Stelios Petsas. "Greece has a proven track record when it comes to observing international law, conventions, and protocols. This includes the treatment of refugees and migrants."
sugarhell on August 15th, 2020 at 08:04 UTC »
Hello, I am from Greece and the last year I served the Greek army for the mandatory military service. I was numerous times at the border especially on Farmakonhsi and Kalolimnos two of the most common places for the refugges to arrive. This situation happens (especially the night) from both port authorities Greek and Turkish but most of the times they collaborate.
Edit: Reading again my comment can lead to some misconfusions. Both authorities would push boats and rafts across the sea borders but they would never leave them alone. It was mostly about which party will get them
LoSboccacc on August 15th, 2020 at 06:37 UTC »
so, where's this evidence? the NYT article are all stock photos of landings and local clashes.
if they had something substantial it would have been front and center. but no. "unnamed sources and the Turkish coast guard confirms it just trust them".
I30T on August 15th, 2020 at 06:33 UTC »
What has actively been going on is that refugees were told that Greece's borders are open when they aren't. The rafts that come are actively being turned around and escorted back to turkish waters. Sometimes the waters are too dangerous and so they keep them at the ports and then send them back (without them leaving the raft). It isn't a secret. Greece isn't denying it.
The refugees are being used in a political game between Greece, Turkey and Europe for the last 6 years. It is unjust for them.