99 migrants rescued in Aegean, security sources say

Turkish Coast Guards saved 99 irregular migrants pushed back by the Greek Coast Guard in the Aegean Sea, security sources said today according to the Daily Sabah.

According to media reports, the Turkish coast guard rescued 43 migrants off the Dikili coast and the migrants were transferred to the provincial migration authority after routine checks.

Coast Guards also saved 56 more migrants off the coast of Izmir’s Foca district, Demiroren News Agency (DHA) said.

The migrants were seeking to cross to Europe with rubber boats to start new lives , having fled war and persecution.

Turkish Coast Guards rescued more than 900 asylum seekers in the recent month who were pushed back by Greece into Turkish territorial waters in the Aegean.

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According to data compiled by Anadolu Agency, from 22 June – 22 July, a total of 929 asylum seekers pushed back by the Greek forces were rescued. Nearly 380 of them were rescued in Izmir, 238 in Balikesir, 162 in Canakkale, 108 in Mugla, 24 in Aydin, and 18 in Antalya.

More than a million people reached Greece from Turkey in 2015-16. Numbers dropped sharply following a 2016 agreement between the EU and Turkey for Ankara to take migrants back in return for funds.

Earlier this year, tens of thousands of migrants tried to cross into Greece via land and sea borders after Ankara said it would no longer stop them.

Turkey, home to 3.6 million Syrians, the world’s largest refugee population, had said it would open the frontier because it was alarmed by the prospect of another wave of refugees fleeing war in northwest Syria.