Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has made serious allegations on Twitter against the Greek Coast Guard. The Turkish coast guard took refugees out of the water at night, who was said to have been thrown into the sea by the Greeks with tied hands.
According to Minister Süleyman, the Greek coast guard would have beaten seven migrants. After that, the Greeks would have stripped them of their belongings and tied their hands with plastic shackles to leave them in the sea without life jackets or lifeboats. He says that on Twitter.
There he also shared a video of the alleged rescue, in which one of the allegedly rescued refugees tells about the incident: he was allegedly arrested by the Greek coast guard on the island of Chios, two days after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. The French news agency AFP indicates that it was unable to verify those claims.
One refugee would have been found dead, two others have been rescued, four more are missing, according to the German news agency DPA. According to AFP, the Turkish Coast Guard said in a statement that it had rescued three people and found three lifeless bodies in the Aegean Sea. Turkish media reported three deaths.
Greece has not yet responded. The Greek Coast Guard has repeatedly been accused of illegally returning migrants trying to reach Greece from Turkey but has dismissed those accusations.
The Aegean Sea is one of the main routes used by migrants to travel illegally to Europe.
