The New York Times is reporting that in April, the Greek Coast Guard gathered a group of asylum-seeking migrants in Greece, including a baby, put them on an inflatable raft in the Aegean Sea, and abandoned them. The article includes striking video evidence of the episode.
The group of migrants were later rescued by Turkish Coast Guard boats.
Greece had denied that it engages in this kind of illegal extrajudicial deportation.
"The government has consistently denied mistreating asylum seekers and points to the fact that it shoulders a disproportionate burden of managing new arrivals to Europe.
"But the video, provided by an Austrian aid worker, Fayad Mulla, who has spent much of the past two and a half years working on the island and trying to document abuses against migrants, may be the most damning evidence yet of the Greek authorities' violation of international laws and E.U. rules governing how asylum seekers must be treated."
