Greece to rescue 80 migrants stranded on border river with Turkey

Greece said Sunday it would rescue a group of dozens of migrants stranded for days on an islet of the Evros River bordering Turkey, failing to get them taken back by the country. "We will rescue them since there is no response from the Turkish authorities to our requests for them to be taken back" by this country, told AFP a source at the Ministry of Citizen Protection.

In a video sent to the media, a Kurdish-speaking man claimed that a group of 80 Yazidi migrants - a Kurdish-speaking minority living mostly in Iraq - had been stranded on an islet in the border river for six days, and that several of these migrants needed treatment.

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Thousands of migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have entered Greece in recent years from Turkey, hoping to reach Western Europe. With border patrols in the Aegean Sea increasingly discouraging them from trying to reach the Greek islands, more migrants are now trying to cross the Evros River, the natural border between Turkey and Greece.

The office of interim Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas said Sunday it had asked the Turkish government to coordinate efforts to "prevent illegal crossings" of the border.

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In recent days the low level of the Evros River favors the illegal passage of migrants, who use the islets that are both Turkish and Greek territory," the firm said in a statement. "On one of these islets, about 80 migrants ended up in the Greek part," the source added.

Another group of nearly 140 migrants was intercepted on Greek territory on Thursday after crossing the river.

The outgoing Conservative government, which intends to return to power in the June 25 elections, has decided to extend a 5-metre-high metal fence already built 38 kilometres along the river, which is expected to cover 100 km of shoreline by 2026.