Coast Guard Command

A 42-year-old Turkish national trying to swim from the coast of Turkey to the Greek island of Symi has been rescued by Greece's coast guard.

The coast guard vessel, on a regular patrol, found the man, on Monday morning, calling for help. He was wearing a tube floating device.

Turkish Coast Guard teams have rescued 20 irregular migrants off the coast of Ayvalık district in the northwestern province of Balıkesir, after receiving reports of a drifting fiber boat in the area.

The migrants, who had been trying to reach Greece's Lesbos Island, were pushed back into Turkish territorial waters by Greek authorities.

The deadly pursuit of migrant traffickers by a Coast Guard patrol boat off the southeastern Aegean island of Symi on Friday has put the spotlight on a conflict raging near Greece's sea borders.

More than 3,300 illegal immigrants in two months, in June and July, have been rescued by the Hellenic Coast Guard in 171 incidents in the Aegean Sea. Among them, 117 traffickers were identified and arrested while 60 boats were seized.

The Turkish Coast Guard Command on Monday reported the rescue of 59 irregular migrants in the Aegean Sea, including 23 who were forcibly pushed back by Greece.

Among those rescued were 10 children, found adrift on a rubber boat pushed back by Greek authorities into Turkish waters near Karaburun, a district in the western province of İzmir.

More than 4,400 fugitives wanted for various crimes were captured in operations conducted across Türkiye over the past five days, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on July 12.

Yerlikaya shared the news on his X account, highlighting that the operations spanned all 81 provinces.

Turkey's coast guard has said that the boat that struck a Turkish fishing vessel earlier on Wednesday was a Greek coast guard vessel and that the fishing vessel was in Turkish waters when the incident happened.

The Turkish Coast Guard has rescued 19 irregular migrants whose boats had capsized off the coast of the western province of İzmir, with teams recovering the bodies of seven others, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said.

Turkish authorities have apprehended dozens of illegal migrants in the Aegean Sea, including those reportedly pushed back by Greece, officials said on June 23.

Early on June 21, the Coast Guard Command intercepted a rubber boat carrying 16 illegal migrants, including one child, off the coast of Muğla's Bodrum district.

One person was killed and five were injured in the eastern Aegean when the inflatable boat they were in crashed into the side of a Greek Coast Guard vessel that was pursuing them, Greek authorities said on Saturday.

The incident took place in the sea off the island of ​​Symi on Friday night.