On Saturday a video of a group of over 80 Yazidi migrants emerged on social media claiming to be stranded on a small island in the Maritsa (Evros) River between Turkey and Greece for four days, the migrants were appealing to Greece to admit them into its territory.
Murad Ismael, the co-founder of the US-based Yazda Foundation, which advocates for the Yazidi population globally, first posted the video demanded for immediate intervention as the immigrants were in dire condition.
Ismael later posted on Sunday that he contacted sources in Greece who reported that the Greek authorities “have taken the Yazidis from the islet to Greece”.
A source from Greece’s citizen ministry on Sunday told AFP that they would rescue the stranded migrants after the Turkish authorities did not respond to their calls to take them back.
Greece is considered a gateway to Western Europe for migrants passing through Turkey, including many Kurds taking dangerous land or sea journeys with the hopes of making better lives for themselves and their families. But with the extensive patrolling on the Aegean Sea, asylum-seekers now opt to use the Maritsa River as a crossing point to the borders of the European Union (EU).
In 2016, Turkey and the EU signed a multi-billion euro deal aimed at containing a wave of migration into Europe. Under the deal, Ankara agreed to stop people from travelling irregularly to Europe and to accept failed asylum seekers from Europe. In exchange, Turkey received funds and Turkish citizens could travel to Europe visa-free.
However, Greece says over the past few years, Turkey has not adhered to the terms agreed upon in the 2016 deal.
“Since [March 2020], Turkish authorities are not cooperating and they are not accepting people back to their territory,” Marios Kaleas, Greece’s director of asylum services, told Rudaw last month.
Athens has been accused by human rights organizations of assaulting migrants and pushing them back across the border into Turkey. In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Greece had violated the EU’s human rights convention in its practice of forcing boats of asylum seekers back to Turkey.
Greece built a five meters high, 38 kilometers long steel fence across the river to prevent immigrants from entering the country through Turkey, the previous conservative government which is expected to win an election on June 25, has decided to extend the fence by 35 kilometers.
