The Greek Coast Guard announced that on Thursday evening it stopped two speedboats carrying a total of 37 migrants off Kos Island and arrested three Turkish smugglers.
Video released by the Greek Coast Guard
Both boats ignored warnings to stop and attempted to ram the Coast Guard patrol boats, authorities said. They were stopped by shots fired at the outboard motors.
Speaking to the state broadcaster ERTCoast Guard spokesman Nikos Kokkalas said the Coast Guard boat approached the first boat, gave signals to stop it, but its operator did not immobilize it or take action to stop it.
“Warning shots were fired in a safe area, even after that the violators refused to immobilize the vessel and tried to ram the Coast Guard vessel, after which shots were fired at the boat’s engines,” the spokesman said.
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://rua.gr/news/migrantskij-front/53415-beregovaya-okhrana-otkryla-predupreditelnyj-ogon-po-kateram-perevozyashchim-migrantov-na-kos.html#sigProIdf66b96cf81
On one of the boats there were 20 migrants and two smugglers who were engaged in the transport of illegal immigrants, and on the other – 17 migrants and another smuggler.
Kos is very close to the Turkish coast, from where migrant boats try to get to the Greek islands or the mainland, and some even to Italy.
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