Pushback

Migrants stand outside a tent at Vucjak refugee camp outside Bihac, northwest Bosnia, 4 December 2019.  Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

Members of the Afghan community of Greece protest in Athens on 7 February 2014 over the death of 12 immigrants off the island of Farmakonisi on 23 January, 2014.  Photo: EPA/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS

Turkish Coast Guard teams have saved a total of 186 irregular migrants that were pushed back to Turkish waters by Greece in two separate operations conducted in the İzmir and Muğla provinces.

Greece has pushed back a total of 41,523 irregular migrants to Turkish waters between 2020 and May 31, 2022, according to a report by Turkey's Ombudsman Institution (KDK).

The report also said that 53 irregular migrants in 2021 and 33 others in 2022 lost their lives - either drowned or froze to death - due to pushbacks.

The grave of Syrian migrant Ahmed Al-Hassan at Tatar cemetery outside the village of Bohoniki, near the Polish-Belarusian border, eastern Poland, 16 November 2021. 19-year-old Ahmed drowned in the Bug River as he tried to cross. EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK

The European Union has finally started to see the Greek policy of pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, which has claimed many lives of asylum seekers, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on May 7.

The Turkish Coast Guard has saved more than 100 irregular migrants pushed back by Greek authorities off the Çeşme, Menderes and Foça districts in the Aegean province of İzmir.

According to a statement from the Coast Guard, the first group, consisting of some 76 people, was saved on April 22. Another group of 32 people was rescued the day after.

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.

The number of irregular migrants caught in Turkey's seas and migrant movement have increased since the start of the year this year compared to the same period of 2021, data from the country's Coast Guard have shown.

Turkey on on Feb. 23 summoned a Greek embassy official to the foreign ministry, a day after a man was wounded when the Greek coast guard opened fire at Turkish fishing vessels in the Aegean sea, a diplomatic source said.