Coast guard

The Hellenic Coast Guard has increased the number of patrols along Greece's eastern sea border amid reports that refugees and migrants are moving en masse by bus from inland camps in Turkey to the coast opposite the Greek islands of Chios, Lesvos and Kos, stoking fears of a repeat of what happened in February at the Evros land border and in the eastern Aegean.

The Greek coast guards harassing a Turkish-flagged merchant ship which was traveling in line with the international maritime law in the south of the Samos Island of the Aegean Sea, immediately left the area following arrival of the Turkish Armed Forces, said security sources on April 9. 

Coast Guard officials will intensify checks at all Greek ports as of Friday to enforce compliance with the measures announced by the government against the spread of the new coronavirus.

Greece's coast guard followed closely a Turkish tanker, suspected of carrying migrants, Friday, before it returned to a Turkish port.

The tanker was spotted at 8.30 am local on Friday between the islands of Chios and Samos, moving between Turkish and international waters.

Greece's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Turkey's ambassador in Athens, Burak Ozugergin, after a video posted on the Shipping Ministry's website showed the harassment of a Greek Coast Guard boat by a Turkish vessel in early morning hours near Kos.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday appeared to applaud a seemingly deliberate attempt by a Turkish Coast Guard vessel to ram into a Greek Coast Guard patrol off the coast of the Greek island of Kos in the early hours.

A video posted on Twitter on Wednesday showed the harassment of a vessel of the Greek Coast Guard by a Turkish Coast Guard boat off the Greek island of Kos. 

In the video, which was posted by the correspondent of Germany's Bild in Greece,  Greek Coast Guard officers on the boat can be heard saying, "they hit us from behind, they broke the edge." 

Two other containers of waste brought from the United Kingdom were detected in the Constanta Sud Agigea Port (South-East), as investigations were pursued in the case of the 16 waste containers discovered in the same port, informed on Monday the Coast Guard.

Greece's coast guard has released footage of a Turkish patrol boat escorting a rubber dinghy packed with migrants and refugees as it tries to enter Greek waters in the eastern Aegean.
According to coast guard officials, the dinghy which appears in the footage is the same vessel that later capsized off the coast of Lesvos, killing one child.

A video footage that became viral on social media on March 2 which appeared to show Greek coastguard vessels confronting a dinghy carrying refugees to Greece, as a Syrian man was reportedly shot dead by police on the border.