Migrants saved in Greek boat accident mourn relatives – and dispute claims

Survivors say coastguards refused to help them as vessel sank and stamped on hands of those clinging to Greek boat

• Helena Smith in Athens
• The Guardian, Monday 27 January 2014 20.14 GMT
  

  Fadi Mohamed, an Afghan who lost his family when the boat sank, describes seeing coastguards kicking a refugee. Photo: Nikolas Georgiou/Demotix/Corbis

  Even now, eight days later, they can both still taste the sea. Just as they can still feel the water slipping through their fingers as they desperately tried to bail out the boat.

12 immigrants missing in the Aegean

1.5 miles from Pharmakonisi island (near Leros island) a fishing boat, transporting undocumented immigrants, capsized today. 16 immigrants have been rescued and 12 are reported missing (9 children and 3 women).

Lesvos: 3 immigrants dead, 12 missing

The bodies of  three immigrants, one  young woman, one boy about 5 and a  girl about 8 years old were found in different beaches of Lesvos island.
Relatives of 9 Syrians refugees missing since  the 7th of March, when they tried to cross the Aegean, notified the authorities that their relatives were aboard a vessel carrying 15 immigrants from Dikeli (Turkey). They said that they lost contact with the people in the small boat during their crossing from Dikeli to Mitiliene.

Lesvos: 18 Migrants Found Dead, 9 Missing

Coast guard police has found the bodies of 18 immigrants who were trying to enter Greece from the Aegean.

Their boat capsized early Friday.

A 20-year-old man found alive Friday told authorities there were 28 people on the crowded boat, including its Turkish owner, when it capsized off the northeastern island of Lesvos, near the Turkish coast. The man, who has been hospitalized, is the sole survivor found so far.

A coast guard spokeswoman said the migrants were “of Asian origin” without specifying further.

Last September, in a similar shipwreck in the Aegean, 60 immigrants died, amongst them 31 children…

2 more dead immigrants in Evros

One more immigrant corpse was found on Thursday afternoon in the region of Evros. The immigrant was found dead in the fields of the village Tychero, near Alexandroupolis. He was 20 to 30 years old.

Two days ago another immigrant, 25 to 30 years old, was found dead near the village of Nea Vissa, close to the town of Orestiada.

The last 2 years more than 80 immigrants have died in Evros.

Immigrants detention camp to be created in Kozani

Yesterday, Monday March 19, the Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis announced in the Greek Cabinet that a new immigrants’ detention camp will be created in Kozani.
The camp will be under the authority of Greek police and will be located in a former military base. The camp’s capacity will be 1,000 inmates.
This will be the first official detention camp in Greece. The responsibility for guarding the perimeter of the detention camp will be given to the Greek police, but according to unofficial info, a private security company will be contracted for the interior.

Evros: 6 dead and 8 missing immigrants since the beginning of the year

On the morning of February 21, 2012, in the rural area near the village Amorion (Orestiada) another corpse was discovered. The dead immigrant was a woman of African origin, aged 18-25 years. The immigrant died because of bad weather, while trying to enter the “European dream” from Turkey, via the river Evros. On February 1, 2012 another African woman was found dead near river Evros, in the area of Tychero village this time. She was about 25 years old, and died either from drowning or hypothermia, as in those days, temperatures in the border areas could fall as low as 15 degrees below zero.

The confirmed number of dead immigrants in Evros river from the beginning of the year is six, while eight more are still missing, including a 9-years-old little girl. She and her grandfather were lost in the cold waters of the river.

Construction of Evros border fence begins

Construction of a fence along the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border officially commenced on Monday, budgeted at 3,162.5 million euros, is due for completion in late August or early September.
Citizens protection minister Christos Papoutsis declared the commencement of the construction of the fence in the Kastanies region, after earlier inaugurating the Border Surveillance Operational Center in the town of Nea Vyssa, where earlier a group of demonstrators protested against the construction of the fence and the Center.

3 Afghans died from cold (?) in Parga – Greece

After an anonymous phone call made to an Afghan family in Afghanistan, policemen found the corpses of three Afghan immigrants thrown in a deserted area outside Parga (West Greece).

Someone anonymously called from Athens and told the Afghan family that strangers threw the dead bodies of three Afghans behind a gas station on the Preveza – Igoumenitsa highway.

Most likely the three Afghans, aged 20-30 years, died from cold as they were transferred on a truck from Athens to the port of Igoumenitsa.

One more dead in Evros

An immigrant died of hypothermia while 14 others were rescued. The 15 migrants were trying to cross river Evros from Turkey to Greece, and were trapped in an island on the Evros river near Tychero village. Seven of the survivors are nationals of Eritrea, two are Palestinian nationals, three are from Algeria, one from Syria and one from Bangladesh. The dead immigrant was also Palestinian. He was transferred in critical condition at the Medical Center of Feres, where he died of hypothermia.