01.07.2010

On Wed­nes­day, Greek poli­ce repor­ted that 16 refu­gees drow­ned when try­ing to cross the river Evros that marks the bor­der bet­ween Tur­key and Greece. Bodies of six men and three women were found tues­day on the Greek side, while ano­ther five bodies were reco­ver­ed on the Tur­ki­sh shore. The corp­ses had been spot­tet on fri­day

On Wed­nes­day, Greek poli­ce repor­ted that 16 refu­gees drow­ned when try­ing to cross the river Evros that marks the bor­der bet­ween Tur­key and Greece. Bodies of six men and three women were found tues­day on the Greek side, while ano­ther five bodies were reco­ver­ed on the Tur­ki­sh shore. The corp­ses had been spot­tet on fri­day alre­a­dy by two women. The drow­ned refu­gees had tried to swim to the Greek shore of the river which had grown in width signi­fi­cant­ly due to hea­vy rain.

The num­ber of refu­gees try­ing to reach Euro­pe this way is on the rise. In the pre­vious week, Greek aut­ho­ri­ties arres­ted 25 Afri­can and Afghan refu­gees who also tried to cross the river. The­re were ten child­ren among­st them. On June 8th the body of an Afri­can migrant was reco­ver­ed from the river who pro­ba­b­ly belon­ged to a group that drow­ned at the same spot by the end of May. From this group, two male bodies were found alre­a­dy as well as the body of a woman belie­ved to be the mother of a five-months old baby.