Migrants beg for help from tiny island between Greece, Turkey

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A Greek human rights organization has called on Athens to help migrants and asylum-seekers stranded on a tiny island on the border between Greece and Turkey.

The Greek Council of Refugees told US media outlet CBS News that they lost contact with the group on Wednesday after a 5-year-old girl was killed by a scorpion earlier in the week.

Her 9-year-old sister was very sick after she was also possibly stung. The organization's president, Vasileios Papadopoulos told CBS that the migrants, who have been stuck there for more than 20 days, have no access to food or clean water.

"They are killing us in Syria, in Turkey, in this island, in Greece, in every place in the world," a 28-year-old refugee in an audio message sent to humanitarian groups said sobbing. "What's our fault? Because no one can hear us?"

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that the Greek police had said they were following closely on reports about the migrants, though they are yet to locate them because they had different coordinates provided to them.

The coordinates provided for the migrants were "outside Greek sovereignty," the police told the AP, and they had asked neighboring Turkey to provide urgent assistance to a group of about 40 people.

The Greek Council of Refugees on Friday said Greece's assertion caused a row about the status of the island shown on online maps as belonging to Greece. "Authorities at least finally acknowledge the existence of the group, which they had so far denied being able to find, despite knowing the location for days and despite their professed manned & unmanned search ops to locate them," it added.

"What's going to happen?" the 28-year-old said in the audio message. "Maybe we all die in the morning. This island is full of snakes, scorpions, and a lot of insects. […] This is the hell in the earth. I swear, this is the hell in the earth, and no one can help us."

Thousands of people are flocking toward Europe from West Asia and North Africa in light of political crises and wars in hopes of attaining a better life in the old continent. 

The small island in the river that forms the border between the two rival questions has long been a frequent crossing point. However, Greek authorities have been accused of violently pushing migrants back into Turkey.

The "pushbacks" - when people are forced back into the country they came from without being allowed to claim asylum - are illegal under international law, but both Athens and Ankara have denied previous allegations.

The refugees have already been pushed back by Athens and Ankara, the Greek Council of Refugees said. "Contact may have been lost with them because members of the group's phone died or because they have been moved," the agency's head said.

More than 3,000 people died in the Mediterranean and Atlantic while trying to reach Europe last year - double the toll from 2020, the United Nations said in late April.

A fresh report from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) demanded urgent action to combat surging deaths among refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants trying to reach Europe.

The European Court of Human Rights issued an order on Tuesday instructing Greek authorities not to move the migrants off Greek territory and provide them with humanitarian aid.

"The last two months especially, since the beginning of June, Greek authorities do not comply with the European court orders," Papadopoulos said.

The aforementioned UN report showed that in 2021, 1,924 people were reported dead or missing on the Central and Western Mediterranean routes, while another 1,153 perished on the North African maritime route to the Canary Islands.

The report also noted a 61% increase in departures from Tunisia compared to 2020, while departures from Libya increased by 150%. They took the Central Mediterranean route, which is the world's deadliest.