ATHENS: In a tragic incident near the Greece-Turkey border, a car carrying ten migrants crashed into a four-wheel drive, killing five migrants and the Greek driver of the SUV.
The accident occurred on a highway near the border when the car carrying migrants was travelling at high speed on the wrong side to avoid a police checkpoint.
The other five migrants and the driver of their vehicle sustained injuries and were rushed to the hospital.
The nationalities of the migrants have not been confirmed yet. Thousands of migrants have been transiting into Greece from Turkey in recent years, hoping to reach Western Europe.
With the increase in patrols in the Aegean Sea, it has become difficult for migrants to reach Greek islands, leading them to take their chances by crossing the Evros River, a natural mainland border, and then have traffickers take them from there by road.
Unfortunately, there has been an increasing number of accidents similar to Saturdays, highlighting the risks that migrants take to reach their destinations.
NGOs accuse Greece of illegal pushbacks
NGOs have accused Greece of illegal pushbacks, which Athens has denied, of asylum seekers who make it across the river.
In a bid to reduce the flow of migrants, conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has urged the European Union to provide financial aid to extend an anti-migrant steel fence along the border with Turkey.
Athens has decided to extend the five-metre high steel fence, which runs along the river, by 35 kilometres (22 miles).
The border fence is currently 38 kilometres long, and Athens aims to complete the extension within a year, adding 100 kilometres by 2026.
The tragic incident underscores the challenges and dangers faced by migrants in their quest for a better life, as well as the need for cooperation among countries to address the issue of migration and its underlying causes.
