The exchange of accusations between Greece and Turkey intensifies on account of an unusual platoon of 92 naked immigrants, apparently abandoned in the open on the river border that separates both countries. The Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum himself, Notis Mitarakis, raised the alert when he published on Saturday on the networks a shocking pixelated photo of a group of "rescued", with which he wanted to denounce "the shame for civilization" that according to him constitutes the treatment of the Turkish authorities, to whom he also demanded "that they at least protect their border".
According to the story released by Athens and collected by the agencies, the group of men "of military age" -as they are usually defined in Greece- would have been transported on Friday "in three vehicles" from the Turkish side to the bank of the Evros river, at a point where it forms the border between the two countries. The clandestine immigrants would have managed to cross into the territory of the European Union with the help of pneumatic rafts, according to what Frontex has established.
Some of them, according to Reuters, had "wounds" when intercepted by Greek border patrols and Frontex. But it is not clear when and under what circumstances they were completely stripped of their clothes and shoes.
The Greek version was answered last night by the Director of Communication of the Turkish government, as a distortion of reality. The director of communications for the Turkish presidency, Fahrettin Altun, accuses the Hellenic minister of "sharing hoaxes" and of "having confused Turkey with his country."
The government spokesman has also brought up "the drowned children in the Aegean" and "the people stripped naked, beaten with belts and left to freeze to death in Maritsa with the complicity of Frontex". The fact is that, until now, it was Turkey that had denounced, on several occasions, that the Greek border guard humiliated immigrants in their hot returns, stripping them of their clothes.
His words have been reinforced this afternoon by the same Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, who, alluding to the controversy, has reported "four drowned in the Aegean this last week" and has referred "to those who drill with you launch the rafts of immigrants, so that they sink", before denouncing "the complicity of Frontex", the European agency of coastguards and borders.
Just yesterday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees inquired about the case, declaring himself "deeply dismayed by the information and images" and adding "to the condemnation of this cruel and degrading treatment." UNHCR also called for "a thorough investigation".
Also today, the Greek minister has returned to the charge on television, adding that the immigrants "were subjected to humiliating treatment" and that he has already requested an appointment with the president of the United Nations General Assembly, to show him "photos and videos" . Mitarakis is a deputy for Chios, the island that was known as the cradle of mastic - the chewing gum of the Middle Ages - but which today appears in the news as a favorite entry point, along with Lesbos, for people-smuggling mafias.
Greek authorities have recently warned of a rebound in irregular migrant arrivals, although an avalanche by sea like the one in 2015, in which Syrian refugees were confused with economic immigrants from various Muslim countries, has not been repeated.
Nor by land, like the one allowed by the Turkish government at the gates of the pandemic. All this, despite the fact that, since the 2016 agreement, Turkey has received billions of euros from the EU to care for Syrian refugees - whom Turkey does not recognize as such - within its borders.
Likewise, a new route, bound for Cyprus or directly for Italy, has made its way from the desperation of economic immigrants from Lebanon and Syria, a much longer, riskier and more expensive journey, with even more possibilities of ending in tragedy. .
