On April 11, a group of 12 migrants, including men, women, children and an infant, were locked inside an unmarked van on the Greek island of Lesbos. They were then forced onto a speedboat, transferred to a Greek Coast Guard vessel, and abandoned in the middle of the Aegean Sea in an inflatable emergency raft. This was in violation of Greek, European Union and international law.
The ordeal was captured on video by an activist and verified by The New York Times. 11 of the asylum seekers were located at a detention center in Izmir, Turkey, and recounted their experience. This incident highlights the mistreatment of asylum seekers by the Greek government, and the need for greater protection of vulnerable migrants.The Turkish Coast Guard has been at the forefront of the migrant crisis in the Aegean Sea. In a recent video, the Coast Guard was seen rescuing a family of seven from a raft in the sea. The family, consisting of Sulekha Abdullahi and her six children, had been cast adrift by the Greek Coast Guard. The video was verified by a frame-by-frame analysis, geolocating key events and confirming the time and day using maritime traffic data. The family was interviewed in Turkey and their accounts matched the events in the video. The Turkish Coast Guard has been praised for their efforts in rescuing migrants and upholding international laws and E.U. rules governing how asylum seekers must be treated.The plight of 12 asylum seekers who were set adrift in the Aegean Sea by the Greek authorities has highlighted the increasingly hardline stance taken by the European Union towards migrants. The group, which included several small children, had been rounded up by masked men and put in a van before being taken out to sea in a speedboat. They were then pushed onto a black inflatable life raft and set adrift in the Aegean. The incident was captured on video and verified by the European Commission, who expressed concern and said they would take the matter up with the Greek authorities.
The incident is part of a wider trend of European countries cracking down on migrants, with Poland, Italy and Lithuania recently changing their laws to make it easier to repel migrants and to punish those who help them. The Greek authorities have gone even further, resorting to extrajudicial expulsions that sweep up even the most vulnerable with the participation of its maritime forces.
The 12 asylum seekers had all fled war and dictatorship in their home countries, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen. After being rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard, they were taken to a detention center in Izmir, where they recounted their ordeal. They had been taken from the brush where they had been hiding, their hijabs torn off and their belongings taken.
The incident highlights the desperate plight of migrants and the lengths they will go to in search of a safe home. It also serves as a reminder of the need for the European Union to fully respect its obligations under the E.U. asylum rules and international law, including ensuring access to the asylum procedure.Mahdi, a young Ethiopian man, had high hopes when he left his home country for Turkey in 2020. He was looking for a fresh start after his college, the Jimma Institute of Technology, temporarily closed due to the pandemic. However, his dreams were quickly dashed when he realized that the Turkish economy was in free-fall and Turks were no longer welcoming of migrants.
His roommate, Miliyen, had fled to Sudan from Eritrea with his mother when the two countries reached a peace agreement in 2018. But when the Ethiopian government, aided by Eritrea’s dictator, unleashed a brutal war, Miliyen had to flee again. He has since lost contact with his mother and has no idea if she is alive.
The fate of Mahdi and Miliyen, along with the Somali women and children they were travelling with, is now unclear. They are stuck in limbo in a Turkish detention center, where they are denied the right to apply for international protection.
The group’s only hope is to be granted asylum in the European Union, where more than 80 percent of Eritreans and more than half of the Somalis who applied for protection last year were successful. Until then, they remain in limbo, hoping for a better future.