The Greek Coast Guard has announced it stopped two speedboats carrying a total of 37 migrants off the island of Kos and arrested three alleged Turkish nationals traffickers on Thursday night.
Video released by the Greek Coast Guard
Both boats ignored warnings to stop and tried to ram Coast Guard patrol vessels, authorities said. They were stopped with shots fired on their outboard motors.
Speaking to state broadcaster ERT, coast guard spokesman Nikos Kokkalas said that the Coast Guard boat approached the first boat, sent signals to stop it, but its operator did not immobilize it, nor it took action to stop it.
“Warning shots were fired in a safe area, even then it immobilized it and tried to jam the Coast Guard vessel resulting in shots being fired at the boat engines,” the spokesman said.
One of the boats carried 20 migrants and the two alleged traffickers and the other 17 migrants and a suspected trafficker.
Kos is very close to the Turkish coast, from which boats carrying migrants attempt to reach Greek islands or the mainland, with some even attempting to make it as far as Italy.
*pictures: via Greek Coast Guard
Were they returned to Turkey? A complete joke if they were brought to Kos.
In fairness they had downloaded the Kos Pass on gov.gr……