Six refugees struggled up the breakwater to safety and were rescued, but the number of migrant deaths from drowning is on the increase. The Turkish coastguard told Reuters that 24 bodies were discovered on the Ayvalik shoreline, whilst ten others were washed ashore in the district of Dikili.
Video footage of the aftermath of the drownings showed a body with a lifejacket being pulled from the sea onto a beach by fishermen. Other bodies, also in lifejackets were strewn nearby.
The desperation of the refugees, left with no choice but to embark on the journey, continues to be exploited by criminals. Many are forced to pay with their lives after boarding unseaworthy boats, wearing lifejackets unfit to keep them alive in the event of danger. Another 56 migrants had to be rescued recently from a sinking dinghy traveling from Dikili to the Greek island of Lesbos.
- Meanwhile over 1,263 unsafe lifejackets have been seized by Turkish police in a raid on a workshop using child labour in Izmir, a city on the Aegean coastline. According to AFP, they were destined to be sold to migrants but failed to reach safety standards.
Indeed, despite a US$3.2 billion deal with the Turkish government to stem the flow of migration of people from Turkey to Europe, people continue to cross the Aegean Sea; lining the pockets of people smugglers, capitalizing on the refugee crisis. More people boarded a boat in December 2015 than during the summer months. The average number of refugees arriving in Lesbos each day is 3,338. In July it was 1,771.......http://sptnkne.ws/axrK
6/1/16
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Police in Turkey say they have confiscated more than 1,000 fake life jackets made for migrants wanting to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece...
ReplyDeleteOfficers raided a workshop in the port of Izmir, where they say they found life jackets stuffed with packaging rather than buoyancy aids.
The four workers making the jackets included two young Syrian girls.
On Tuesday, the bodies of 34 migrants were found along Turkey's coast. Many were wearing life jackets.
Several children were among the dead.
No protection
More than one million migrants crossed the Mediterranean in 2015 and the vast majority went from Turkey to Greece.
Many migrants buy life jackets to help them survive the dinghy journey. A properly made jacket costs up to a £100 (€130; $150), reports the BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul.
But many migrants make do with cheaper, badly made ones, which cost just £10 and may offer no protection whatsoever, our correspondent says.
BBC
ReplyDeleteThe European Union has seen encouraging first results from Turkey in a joint plan to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Europe, but remains far from satisfied as the number of arrivals remains high, a top EU official said on Thursday.
The European Union is counting on Turkey to help reduce the number of migrants entering the bloc following a deal between Brussels and Ankara late last year for Turkey to absorb more people fleeing Syria's civil war.
"The only benchmark of course are the figures going down. We're all committed, that's part of the joint action plan, to bring the figures down and it's quite clear over the last couple of weeks, the figures have remained relatively high, so there is still a lot of work to do there," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told a news conference.
"Our cooperation with Turkish authorities is positive. We will continue discussing ways to improve the effectiveness of their operations. We have seen the first results which are encouraging but we are a long way from being satisfied," he said.
REUTERS
7/1/16