The founder of the NGO “HumanRights360”, Epaminondas Farmakis, admitted that his assessment was wrong in a statement about the islet in Evros, where the 38 refugees were found, being Greek territory.

Farmakis underlines that “our organization does not wish, under any circumstances, to create a border issue between Greece and Turkey, nor does it question the borders between the two countries”.

Its purpose and concern, he continues, “is exclusively the protection of human life and dignity, always within the framework of national and international law, as well as the statutory procedures”.

Specifically, regarding the case of the 38 refugees the NGO founder clarified that “from the public data available to us and taking into account that the area presents a particularly complex territorial regime as, depending on the flow of the river, sections of dry land emerge from time to time along it, we formed the erroneous belief that the above lands were on Greek territory”.

Also, he notes that ” the entry of a journalist into the KyT of Evros Prison was made on his sole initiative without prior knowledge, information or involvement of the management of our organization. After all, the above journalist has never been an employee or partner of our organization, as was inaccurately stated in the transmission document of his entry request”.

In the meantime, shortly after the NGO’s announcement, the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum and the Minister of Citizen Protection Takis Theodorikakos called on SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras to respond about the issue which had caused great controversy on the Greek political scene, as the major opposition party had criticised the government for failing to take action.

“As new evidence clearly challenges the lie about a dead child in Evros, now comes the NGO HumanRights360, which had filed the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, to confirm the government’s opinion that what was involved in the case of the 38 migrants happened outside the Greek Territory. It irreparably exposes those who exploited the incident and more comparatively the situation, for their own benefit by spreading inaccuracies in the international and domestic press. It is recalled that SYRIZA MPs brought the issue to the European Parliament, defaming the country”, reports the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum.

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