ANKARA: Turkey’s interior minister said on Wednesday that the bodies of 12 migrants who were frozen to death were found near Turkey’s border with Greece, accusing Greek border guards of pushing them back to the border.
Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu tweeted that 12 were among 22 migrants who were pushed back into Turkey by Greek border guards. They said they were found “without shoes and taking off their clothes” across the Ipsala border between Turkey and Greece.
The minister did not give further details, but shared blurry pictures of eight of the bodies recovered, including three in shorts and T-shirts.
Soylu accused Greek border units of acting as “thugs” towards migrants while showing sympathy to members of a network – which Turkey says is behind the failed 2016 military coup – who have fled to Greece .
He also accused the EU of being “helpless, weak and inhuman”.
The governor’s office in Edirne province, near the land border with Greece, said the dead included a migrant who died in hospital after being rescued by Turkish authorities.
Turkey often accuses neighboring Greece of illegally pushing back migrants seeking to make their way into Europe. Greece denies accusing migrants of so-called pushback that prevents them from applying for international protection.
Turkey, which hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees, is a major crossing point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa in search of a better life in EU countries.
Most try to enter Greece either by crossing the northeastern land border or in smuggling boats headed to the eastern Aegean Sea islands.
Recently, smuggling gangs have been ferrying migrants into boats from Turkey to Italy. Dozens of migrants have died in the Central Aegean in the past month.
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