‼️#Greek coast guard performed huge illegal #pushback involving 197 people and 7 life rafts on Wednesday! ‼️ 
A boat carrying 197 people tried to cross from #Turkey to #Italy on Tuesday, but got into bad weather and sat course towards #Crete. Close to the south shore of Crete, they had engine problems and the Greek Coast Guard (HCG) was alerted at 09.00.
#HCG divided the people on two coast guard vessels, 121 men & boys on the first & 76 people (families) on the other. Some of the refugees states they were abused while onboard the HCG vessel. Footage & video testimonies have been provided.
Most of their phones were confiscated by the Greek coast guard, but a few managed to hide their phones, and were able to send out distress messages.
The first group, containing the 121 males, was forced in to 3 life rafts before first light on Wednesday (21 October), just north of #Rhodes. They were found and picked up by #Turkish coast guard 08.50 south of Marmaris.
The second group (families), 76 people, were put in 4 life rafts around noon, north west of Simi. They were drifting for hours, and weren't picked up by Turkish Coast Guard until 17.30, south west of Datça.
This shows that the #Greek coast guard is determined to prevent anyone from reaching Greek soil, no matter the consequences or potential harm they may inflict on innocent people fleeing war and persecution.
This is by far the largest pushback @ABoatReport has ever been able to document. No measures have been taken by the @EU_Commission to try to stop this illegal practice by the Greek gov't, even though they have received an overwhelming amount of evidence over the past few years.
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