Migrants ‘pushed back’ by Greece, freeze to death: Turkey

 Migrants are seen during clashes with Greek police, at the Turkey’s Pazarkule border crossing (Reuters)

ISTANBUL AFP Feb2, 2022- Ankara on Wednesday accused Greece of allowing 12 migrants to die in the winter cold after stripping them of their clothes and then pushing them back across the Turkish border.   
The charges from Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu threaten to escalate simmering tensions between the rival members of the NATO defence alliance.   
They also highlighted Ankara’s concern that the European Union was not doing enough to support Turkey --which hosts an estimated five million migrants and refugees --in the face of a potential new flow of people from Afghanistan.   
Soylu posted blurred images on Twitter showing bodies lying by the roadside.   
 “Twelve of the 22 migrants pushed back by Greek border units” have frozen to death after being “stripped (of) their clothes and shoes”, Soylu wrote in English.   
The regional governor’s office said 11 of the migrants were discovered frozen to death.