The Greek government has actually covertly expelled more than 1,000 refugees from Europe’s borders in current months, sailing a number of them to the edge of Greek territorial waters and after that deserting them in inflatable and in some cases overburdened life rafts.

Considering That March, at least 1,072 asylum hunters have actually been dropped at sea by Greek authorities in a minimum of 31 separate expulsions, according to an analysis of evidence by The New york city Times from three independent guard dogs, two scholastic researchers and the Turkish Coast Guard. The Times interviewed survivors from five of those episodes and examined photographic or video evidence from all 31.

” It was really inhumane,” stated Najma al-Khatib, a 50- year-old Syrian instructor, who states masked Greek officials took her and 22 others, including 2 infants, under cover of darkness from a detention center on the island of Rhodes on July 26 and deserted them in a rudderless, motorless life raft before they were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard.

” I left Syria for worry of battle– however when this occurred, I wished I ‘d passed away under a bomb,” she told The Times.

Not a good equilibrium, mind you. I do not expect extremely stiff EU sanctions in reaction, nor is this likely to change:

Ylva Johansson, who supervises migration policy at the European Commission, the civil service for the European Union, stated she was worried by the accusations however had no power to examine them.

Here is the full NYT piece