🔴 “We are at the buffer zone between Greece and Turkey. We escaped Turkey. I apply for political asylum from Greece. I ask United Nations to help.” -A #Kurdishrefugee pleaded from the border before contact was lost. https://t.co/KXSKySCQMAhttps://t.co/Hid3zI9KgQ pic.twitter.com/98MtP1PYPu
— MedyaNews (@1MedyaNews) April 11, 2023
Contact has been cut since last night with two Kurdish men who had called for help stuck in the buffer zone on the Turkish-Greek border, Gazete Duvar reported.
Heading for Greece to seek asylum, the two refugees have been sending recordings to relatives since the beginning of their journey.
“We are at the buffer zone between Greece and Turkey. We escaped from Turkey. I apply for political asylum from Greece. I ask from United Nations to help,” said one of the refugees, Serhat Karadeniz, in a video recorded on Monday afternoon.
“Today is our third day. We are here without food and water,” Karadeniz said, stressing that so far they had received no help.
In another video, the same man showed wall built with steel blocks at the Greek border.
“We cannot enter and we cannot return to the Turkish side,” he said in the video.
In videos recorded later in the day, Karadeniz said he and his friend had managed to escape from Turkish soldiers that had tried to arrest them. In the latest video, he said he had talked with the Greek soldiers to negotiate passing the border and that they were waiting for the Greek police.
No contact has been made with the two men since the last video.
Human rights group Network for Monitoring Border Violence, told Gazete Duvar that they have informed the Greek officials as well as the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about the situation of the two Kurdish men, noting that the two refugees needed immediate help and should be protected under international law.
