European Border and Coast Guard

More than 38,000 migrant smugglers have been apprehended and over 9,000 suspects have been arrested in Turkey in the past six years, according to the Presidency of Migration Management.

From Jan. 1 to April 19 this year, security forces have captured 2,545 migrant smugglers, which points to a 53 percent increase from the same period in 2021, the authority said in a statement.

Ljubljana – Interior Minister Aleš Hojs and his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Nouris discussed in Ljubljana on Friday the war in Ukraine and its consequences. They stressed the importance of managing migration at the EU level. They also spoke of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, where Slovenia advocates flexible solidarity.

Human Rights Watch accused authorities in Greece of allegedly using migrants to help carry out summary, illegal deportations of asylum seekers at the country's border before they are able to register their claims.

Turkey has accused Greece of pushing back migrants through inhuman ways as a state policy and the European Union of turning a blind eye to this blatant violation of human rights after 19 migrants froze to death after being pushed back by Greek authorities in the past weeks.

The Turkish Coast Guard last year rescued 23,676 irregular migrants in the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea and 15,794 of them were pushed back by Greek authorities into Turkish waters.

In 2021, a total of 619 pushback incidents took place, according to data from the Turkish Coast Guard.

Turkish security forces have recovered the bodies of seven more irregular migrants, who froze to death after Greek border guards pushed them back, bringing the number of the fatalities to 19.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said the bodies of 12 irregular migrants were found near the İpsala border crossing between Turkey and Greece without shoes and stripped of their clothes.

Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has slammed Greek authorities, claiming that the Greek has thrown three migrants into the Aegean Sea, which resulted in one of the victims' death.

Soylu said on Twitter that two of the migrants were rescued while the other one had died following an incident off the coast of the Çeşme district in Turkey's İzmir province.

Frontex told BIRN that all due procedures were followed, after the Italy-based Association for Legal Studies on Immigration, ASGI, claimed the EU border agency and Greek police on November 6 intercepted a team of four ASGI legal experts near the border village of Idomeni in Greece and forced them back to North Macedonia,

Greek forces continue to push irregular migrants, including women and children, into Turkish territorial waters in the Aegean Sea.

The Turkish Defense Ministry shared a video of Greek Coast Guards pointing guns at refugees, battering and pushing them into Turkish territorial waters.

Greece's police minister on Oct. 10 said 250 additional guards would be deployed on the country's land border with Turkey, where thousands of asylum-seekers tried to enter last year.