The details of Aylan Kurdi’s child, who drowned over 7 years ago in 2015 while fleeing with his family off the coast of Bodrum while trying to enter Greece after crossing the Turkish coast, whose image shocked the world at the time, were repeated as Turkey announced the murder of six migrants, including two children, in the Aegean show after Greece pushed them into Turkish waters.
And the same tragedy was repeated in 2020, when a child died off the coast of the Greek island of Lesvos after a boat carrying about 50 migrants sank, a port police spokesman confirmed.
In the latest incident, the Turkish Coast Guard said in a statement that authorities had rescued 73 other migrants trying to reach Europe early Tuesday morning off the coast of Muğla province in the country’s southwest.
The Coast Guard indicated that elements of the Greek forces drove the migrants, who were on four boats, towards Turkish waters.
The nationality of the migrants was not mentioned, but the Coast Guard quoted the rescued people as saying they set off from the port of Tripoli in Lebanon on Saturday in an attempt to reach Italy.
Finally, according to the same source, they sent a distress call to the Greek authorities after their two boats ran out of fuel off the Greek island of Rhodes.
“We were told that after being taken aboard a Greek Coast Guard ship and stripped of their valuables, the migrants were put on board four boats that ran aground near Turkish territorial waters,” the Turkish Coast Guard said in a statement.
Relations between Athens and Ankara are very strained, and they accuse each other of violating the rights of migrants.
Greece admitted on Sunday that it has prevented more than 150,000 illegal immigrants from entering its land and sea borders since the beginning of the year.
Greece is often the preferred destination for people fleeing Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life in the European Union.
Thousands of people pass through Turkey via the Evros River or try to cross the Aegean Sea.
Greece has been repeatedly criticized for the alleged illegal expulsion of migrants to Turkey at its land and maritime borders, according to testimonies from victims published by NGOs, AFP and other media. But Athena has always denied these accusations.
