Summary:
- A tragic incident unfolds as 19 bodies, including two children, are found amidst the charred remains of a forest near the Greek-Turkish border.
- Presumed to be migrants, these individuals appear to have used the forest as cover in an attempt to cross into the European Union.
- Tragically, some victims were found in a final embrace, suggesting a desperate bid to protect themselves as the wildfire closed in.
- The route through this forest has been popular among migrants from the Middle East and Asia, despite its transformation into a deadly hazard.
- Criticism towards Greece arises as refugee groups accuse the country of mistreatment and illegal pushbacks at the border.
In the charred Greek landscape close to the border with Turkey, a group of blackened corpses lay amid the ashes of what was once a lush forest. Two of the 18 dead were children. The group of males is presumed to have been migrants, using the forest as cover to cross into the European Union.
One group of seven to eight bodies was found huddled together in what appeared to be a final embrace. Pavlos Pavlidis is the coroner who was called to the scene on Tuesday. The posture indicated that these people were hugging. In other words, they realized at the last moment that the end was coming and it was a desperate attempt to protect themselves as much as they could.
My guess is that these people were hugging. They were found here near the village of Aventus in north-eastern Greece where a fierce wildfire swept with devastating speed. One of hundreds across the country fueled by high temperatures and whipped up by gale-force winds. The president of the village said in the early days of the fire he pleaded with three groups of migrants to go to the village square. They were afraid of police, but he told them it was better to be arrested than to burn alive. This route taken by the migrants has proved popular among those from the Middle East and Asia. But vegetation that was meant to offer protection to evade the Greek police turned into a death trap.
We understand from the sight that these people lived in an animal shed and at some point, they noticed a fire and started to run in order to escape. The people who perished in the forest are presumed to be among thousands who cross into Greece from Turkey every year. Of the 18,700 arrivals to Greece last year, a third were via land according to UN data. Wright's groups in the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, have long accused Greece of mistreating those at the border and sometimes forcibly pushing them back to Turkey, a practice illegal under international law. Greece denies the accusations, saying its strict but fair migration policy protects the EU's borders.