Turkey rescued 116 migrants ‘pushed back by Greece’ in Aegean

Turkish coast guards on Monday (August 19) said they rescued 116 migrants in multiple operations close to the Turkish coast who had attempted to reach Greece’s coast irregularly. The officials claimed the migrants were pushed back by Greek authorities in the Aegean Sea.

A reported 35 migrants, including a child, were retrieved from a rubber dinghy adrift in the waters off the coast of Karaburun, in the province of Izmir, which is located near the Greek island of Chios.

In other operations in the same area, another 44 people, including five children, were rescued, Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

Turkish coast guards said they also rescued an additional 37 migrants, including 19 children, off the south-western coast of Turkey’s Dalaman district, in the province of Mugla.

Also read: Turkey: Raft crash on Aegean coast kills at least 7 migrants

‘184,000 migrants rescued in 2010-2023 in Aegean’

Ankara regularly accuses Athens of pushing back migrants attempting to reach Greece’s islands irregularly, forcing them back into Turkish waters.

According to Turkish figures, between 2010 and 2023, Turkish coast guards rescued more than 184,000 migrants in the Aegean Sea. During the same period, 923 migrants were reported dead, and 503 went missing after their boats sank.

Following the 2015 migration crisis, Turkey and the European Union reached a 2016 agreement. Under this deal, the EU provided funding for managing migrants within Turkish territory, which now hosts over 3 million people. In return, Greek security forces pledged to keep their borders closed to those attempting to reach Europe irregularly.

Also read: Greek coast guard denies allegations of illegal pushbacks