The European Union’s border agency Frontex has confirmed that officers from its permanent troops patrolling the Evros region helped the Greek authorities rescue a group of 92 immigrants who crossed the Greek-Turkish border.
In a statement issued yesterday, October 18, Frontex pointed out that its agents had reported that the immigrants had been found without clothes, some with visible injuries, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
In addition, the officers and their Greek colleagues provide immediate assistance to the migrants.
“The agency also informed the Frontex Fundamental Rights Officer of a potential fundamental rights violation. The rapid reaction to the incident demonstrated the high professionalism of the Greek authorities and the good cooperation with Frontex,” read the statement.
Yesterday, Frontex also confirmed to AFP the arrival of this group of immigrants, while the authorities in Ankara denied reports of illegal expulsions of immigrants.
In this regard, the Greek Ministry of Civil Defense described the circumstances in which the migrants arrived in the Hellenic Republic as inhumane.
According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the shocking reports and images of these 92 people are deeply disturbing.
However, regarding the issue of immigrants, the Greek and Turkish authorities continue to accuse each other.
Thus, the Greek Minister of Civil Defense, Takis Theodorikakos, accused Turkey of instrumentalizing illegal immigration.
As Minister Theodorikakos explained, many migrants told the European Border Agency that three Turkish army vehicles transferred them across the river.
These accusations were also denied by the main press secretary of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Fahrettin Altun. At the same time, he called on the Greek authorities to put an end to the mistreatment of refugees as soon as possible and to stop the false and baseless accusations against Turkey.
On September 21, Minister Theodorikakos revealed that approximately 1,500 illegal immigrants attempted to cross the Greek border.
He underlined that Greece was indeed opposed to the continuous attempt of the Turks to instrumentalize immigrants.
Moreover, at the beginning of last month, the Minister for the Protection of Greek Citizens revealed that the Greek police had apprehended 154,102 illegal immigrants entered the country since 2022.
In response to this, the fence was extended along the entire length of the Greek-Turkish border, improving electronic surveillance systems.
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