Athens: According to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday, the Greek government is "holding an inquiry" into video footage that appears to show the forcible expulsion of migrants who are left at sea.
According to him, "I... take this incident very seriously," he told CNN. "My government has already begun an investigation." The video, which The New York Times released on Friday, appears to show masked men approaching migrants who had arrived in Greece by boat on April 11 and loading them into a van.
The migrants are then transported to the Aegean Sea, loaded onto an inflatable raft, and cast off.
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About an hour later, they are seen being rescued by Turkish coast guard boats. A thorough investigation has been called for by the UN High Commission on Human Rights and EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.
The video added to the body of evidence being compiled by media outlets and human rights organisations that Greek authorities are engaging in a number of "pushbacks" of migrants, which are prohibited by international refugee law.
The accusations have been denied by the Greek government, and Mitsotakis called the behaviour depicted in the video "completely unacceptable practise." He reiterated claims that the Turkish coast guard "aggressively pushes people desperate people on basically inflatable boats... pushing them into our territory."
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Two days after his conservative New Democracy party triumphed in national elections but fell short of winning an absolute majority, the interview was conducted