Turkish Coast Guard attempted to hinder a refugees rescue operation off the island of Chios in the eastern Aegean Sea on Wednesday noon. Moreover, the TCG vessel tried to rammed a Greek coast guard boat involved in the rescue operation, initial reports by local media said. Earlier, the TCG had let the boat with 53 migrants and refugees on board to cross into Greek territorial waters.
The TGC vessel reportedly tried to ram the Greek boat, claiming it was inside Turkey’s territorial waters.
Later the Greek Coast Guard dismissed the ram attempt saying it was trying to hinder the rescue operation.
The Turkish vessel did some dangerous maneuvers a prevented the vessel of the Chios Coast Guard from rescuing the migrants, sources from the Greek Armed Forces to a military affairs website.
When the migrants inflatable boat entered the Greek waters, it increased speed with the result that some people fell into the sea, the Greek Coast Guard said.
Video: children also on the boat
The incident occurred around 10 o’ clock Wednesday morning, while the rescue operation was taking place off the islet of Paspargos.
Despite the Turkish provocation, two vessels of the Greek Coast Guard rescued the 53 boats passengers and transferred them to the port of Chios.
Greek coast Guard vessel 611 upon arrival the Chios port – via politischios.gr
It was the third rescue operation within Wednesday, as a total of 177 migrants and refugees arrived on Chios in a single day.
According to official data, a large number of migrants and refugees reached the Aegean island of Chios in the last 24 hours following a three-month period of no migrant arrivals on the island.
A total of five incidents were recorded between Tuesday afternoon and 10 o’ clock Wednesday morning, with a total of 212 people to have arrived on Chios. They were all transferred to the hotspot of VIAL.
There were a total of 284 arrivals of migrant and refugee recorded on Chios Between January 1 until March 31, a total of 284 migrants and refugees arrived on Chios, among them also Turkish nationals fleeing Erdogan’s regime.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, 169 people arrived on Lesvos and 142 on Samos. A total of 532 migrants and refugees reached the northern Aegean islands in the last four days.
