Two days of agony for the refugees south of Crete

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EUROKINISSI-STELIOS STEFANOU

27.03.2023, 00:07

About 50 refugees remain in a sea area south of Crete who are on board a boat with a broken engine, as reported by the Alarm Phone organization, citing testimonies from relatives of people who are inside the boat.

According to the same source, Coast Guard ships are preventing the refugees from going ashore.

Relatives informed us that during their last contact with the people ~1 hour ago, they were still at sea close to Cretan shore. The people also told them that vessels of the @HCoastGuard in the vicinity forbade them to go to land.

Why are the people left at sea for 2 days?

— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) March 26, 2023

It is recalled that the first report from Alarm Phone was made at noon on Saturday, with the organization reporting a few hours later that the Coast Guard towed the refugee ship to a location south of Crete, but did not let them go ashore. For this reason, the organization expressed concern about the possible repatriation of refugees.