Athens, Greece – A five-year-old Syrian woman, who was amongst a bunch of refugees and migrants, is known to have died on a Greek islet on the Evros River.
Her dad and mom have submerged the woman’s physique in river water in an try to hold it cool, as Greek authorities seem unable to find the group.
These nonetheless on the islet with the woman’s stays say she died within the early hours of Tuesday after being stung by a scorpion, two days after they have been stranded there.
One other woman, who’s 9, stays in crucial situation. She can also be understood to have been stung by a scorpion.
They’re a part of a bunch of 39 asylum seekers, a few of whom are trapped for a second time on this unnamed islet after repeated alleged pushbacks between Turkey and Greece.
One member of the group, 27-year-old Baida, additionally from Syria, has been sending frantic messages to attorneys and journalists for the reason that reported demise.
“A lady died. A baby. She’s lifeless. I can do nothing,” she stated in a WhatsApp voice word despatched to a bunch together with this reporter.
She posted images of the woman on her again together with her eyes closed, mendacity on a patch of grass on the islet.
In one other message, she questioned why the youngsters haven’t obtained any assist.
“Nobody hears our voices,” she stated.
For now, the dad and mom of the five-year-old have positioned her within the river’s water to maintain her physique cool.
“If you happen to hear our voices please assist us,” Baida stated. “The opposite woman may die tomorrow.”
The refugees say they have been compelled on the islet by Turkish authorities on August 7.
The Evros land border is a frequent crossing level for these wishing to say asylum in Europe, however many studies have documented violent Greek pushbacks in latest months, in addition to incidents the place folks have been made to cross by Turkish authorities.
The stranded refugees and migrants, who on the time of writing stay trapped on the island, want to declare asylum in Greece.
Greek authorities have been notified of their location and activists have made emergency calls on their behalf to police, however officers say that they haven’t been in a position to find the group.
On Tuesday, the European Court docket of Human Rights issued an order stating that the trapped asylum seekers shouldn’t be faraway from Greek territory and that they need to be supplied with meals, water and enough medical care.
Of their messages, members of the group describe what quantities to a geopolitical ping-pong sport, being pushed backwards and forwards throughout the land border by Greek and Turkish authorities for weeks within the extremely militarised border zone by which no lawyer, human rights organisations or journalists can legally enter.
Some have been initially stranded in the identical location in late July, having tried to cross the border from Turkey.
They are saying they survived on meals scraps, nuts and muddy water from the river earlier than being returned to Turkey by Greek authorities.
Then, they accused Turkish authorities of holding them in army barracks, and later bringing them again throughout to the river and ordering them — at gunpoint — to cross once more into Greek territory.
Al Jazeera has contacted Greek and Turkish officers in an try to confirm the small print of those alleged incidents however had not obtained a response by the point of writing.
Longtime foes, NATO members Athens and Ankara are at the moment locked in rows on a number of fronts, together with the refugee problem and oil and gasoline exploration within the Japanese Mediterranean.
‘We’re very frightened … particularly for the youngsters’
The stranded refugees’ place on Greek territory has been verified by a location one of many asylum seekers despatched through WhatsApp.
The Greek Council of Refugees and HumanRights360, that are representing the group of refugees, have additionally knowledgeable the European Union border company Frontex, the UN refugee company, the Greek ombudsman and members of the European Parliament of this location in an try to safe their rescue.
“We’re very frightened in regards to the state of affairs of the 39 refugees and particularly for the youngsters,” Evgenia Kouniaki, a lawyer for the Greece-based HumanRights360 and Maria Papamina, coordinator of the authorized unit of the Greek Council for Refugees, advised Al Jazeera in a joint assertion.
“The violations of human rights on the Greek-Turkish borders are a merciless actuality. Deaths, pushbacks, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and other people left hopeless within the islets. The demise of the five-year-old woman proves how irrational and murderous this coverage is.”
The Border Violence Monitoring Community, which paperwork pushbacks which might be unlawful below worldwide legislation, stated in an announcement that Turkish and Greek authorities have been “utilizing people-on-the-move as items in a political sport”.
