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A disturbing video appears to show the Greek coast guard deliberately sinking a life raft full of refugees.

The footage recorded on November 12 shows a crewman on a Greek-marked coast guard ship jabbing a sharp pole into an inflatable boat full of people.

The Greek Coast Guard has categorically denied the allegations.

The 58 passengers on board the raft start to scream with fear while the vessel sinks – and the Greek ship appears to sail away.


A Turkish boat later arrives and pulls the refugees out of the water. They were then taken to the Turkish port city of Didim.

The video was released by the Turkish government. An official said they had shown it to the head of the Hellenic coast guard earlier in the week, and had asked them to stop.

The Hellenic Coast Guard's response The Greek coast guard recently responded to the allegations made by the Turkish authorities. In a statement, they said: 1. The Hellenic Coastguard categorically denies the articles in the foreign press, as well as the doctored audiovisual material on a foreign website, according to which a Hellenic Coastguard vessel allegedly tried to sink a boat carrying refugees. Moreover, we obviously deny any effort by members of the crew to draw near to their large vessel a small inflatable craft by using a nautical hook (that is, a tool used in accordance with international shipping technique and practices for this purpose) while a nearby Turkish coastguard vessel assisted the rescue operation by lighting and facilitating all of the actions with a spotlight. 2. We believe it to be at the very least contradictory to allege that the Hellenic Coastguard supposedly follows such practices, which are incompatible with the values of our culture and which are condemnable at a time when the Hellenic Coastguard, from early 2015 until today, has saved some 90,000 refugees from the sea in Search and Rescue operations. 3. We also categorically deny that there was an exchange of relevant dialogue between the Heads of the Coastguards of Greece and Turkey, as presented in articles in the Turkish press.

Commander Athanasios Athanasopulos was ‘shocked’ and promised to take action against it happening again, according to the Hurriyet Daily News.



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‘The Turkish coast guard regularly films its rescue operations, and has previously shared footage with international media,’ a Turkish government official told Middle East Eye, on the condition of anonymity.

‘But this is shocking. We expect that this footage will be investigated – it’s difficult for us to understand why they would try to sink a refugee boat.’

Amnesty International has also viewed the footage, and said it was ‘profoundly concerned’. It has now urged the Greek authorities to launch a ‘prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident’.

The organisation’s Greece researcher, Kondylia Gogou, told Middle East Eye that Amnesty has been informed of four separate ‘push-backs’ from Greece – where authorities illegally prevent people from seeking asylum.