Fury in Greece as police tow migrants out to drown

Anger in Athens last week (Pic: Workers’ Solidarity)

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Around 2,000 people—including many Syrian, Afghan and Pakistani immigrants—marched on European Union (EU) offices in Athens on Thursday of last week.

They demanded that the EU opens its borders and that police officers are prosecuted after 12 women and children drowned last month.

A boat carrying 28 Afghan and Syrian refugees had got within 100 metres of the island of Farmakonisi. But a police patrol intercepted it and pulled it back out to sea towards Turkey, according to survivors.

Abdul Sabur, whose wife and child were among the drowned, told Workers Solidarity newspaper, “When we tried to climb onto the police boat saying we were going to drown, they laughed and swore and said they didn’t care if we died. They tried to kick us so we couldn’t climb in.”

The government said the migrants caused the boat to sink themselves. Now survivors demand the government finds the bodies so they can be buried, and the wreckage to prove what happened.

“I want to find my wife and my child,” said Abdul.

“I want to know why they did these things. And to stop them doing it again to other people.”