Athens, Europe Brief News – The bodies of 12 migrants who froze to death have been found near Turkey’s border with Greece, the Turkish interior minister said.
A Turkish minister accused Greek border guards of taking the group’s clothes and shoes and then forcing them back across the border.
Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said in a Twitter post written in English: “Twelve of the 22 migrants pushed back by Greek Border Units, stripped off from their clothes and shoes, have frozen to death.”
The Turkish government minister said they froze to death and accused Greek border guards of stripping the migrants and forcing them back across the frontier before they died.
He said they were found near the Ipsala border crossing between Turkey and Greece “without shoes and stripped of their clothes”.
The minister shared blurred photographs of eight of the recovered bodies, including three in shorts and T-shirts.
He added that the European Union was “remediless, weak and void of humane feelings,” calling the Greek border guards thugs.
Greece has always denied pushing migrants back after they have crossed from Turkey, even after the United Nations documented such cases.
According to the United Nations’ migration agency, more than 1,100 people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East have died last year in the Mediterranean.
War-torn Libya has been the dominant transit point for thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa. Thus, the were seeking a new hope in the European continent.
Thousands leave Libya yearly towards Europe. Many of them die on the journey.
Since the start of the year, over 10,000 migrants returned to Libya in 2021, while at least 180 migrants travelling died.
Hundreds are still missing so far this year.
