The discovery of almost 100 nude men at the border between Greece and Turkey has left the UN agency for refugees ‘very disturbed,’ according to the agency. The two nations have placed blame for the 92 migrants’ suffering on one another. Greece placed the onus of responsibility on Turkey, calling its ‘behaviour’ a ‘shame for civilization’.
The charges made by Turkey’s neighbour were referred to as ‘false news’ and ‘cruelty’ by its neighbour. The UN agency for refugees demanded a probe as both sides laid blame, stating that it was ‘extremely concerned by the appalling accounts and photographs’. The 92 men, some of whom had injuries, were found Friday night near to Greece’s northern border with Turkey. Greek authorities claimed to have saved them.
According to them, evidence showed that the migrants entered Greek territory by crossing the Evros river in rubber dinghies from Turkey during an inquiry conducted jointly by them and Frontex officers. The statement stated that ‘border cops uncovered 92 illegal migrants without clothing, some of them had bruises on their bodies’. Greek officials reported that the guys received first assistance, clothes, and food right away.
The men’s missing clothing was a mystery as to how and why it occurred. Frontex claimed that the men were primarily from Syria and Afghanistan and that the organization’s basic rights officer had been made aware of a possible rights violation. In the most recent exchange over migration between the neighbours, Takis Theodorikakos, the Greek minister for public protection, accused Turkey of ‘instrumentalizing unlawful immigration’.
Speaking to Greek television, he asserted that a large number of the migrants had told Frontex that ‘three Turkish army trucks had relocated them’ to the river that serves as the boundary between the two nations. This assertion cannot be independently verified by the BBC. ‘One would anticipate a convincing justification from the Turkish government’, according to Mr. Theodorikakos.
Turkish treatment of the refugees is ‘a shame for civilization,’ Greek Minister of Migration Notis Mitarachi wrote in a tweet a day earlier. In his words, Athens expected Ankara to look into the event and ‘defend… its border with the EU’. With tweets from the president rejecting any wrongdoing and condemning Greece for the ‘inhuman’ circumstances, the controversy has now reached Turkey’s highest level of government.
Top press secretary to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Fahrettin Altun said on social media that ‘the Greek machine of fake news is back at action’. By tweeting the refugees’ photos, he claimed that Greece was disrespecting the migrants
