Coast guard defends itself after report on migrant girl’s death

The Hellenic Coast Guard has dismissed a foreign news report that blamed it for the death a 4-year-old girl who had been on a migrant vessel off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Samos.

The coast guard said it detected the vessel but that it was within Turkish territorial waters. It said it immediately informed Turkish authorities in accordance with the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue and that, soon after, a Turkish coast guard vessel arrived and collected the migrants before transferring them to the Turkish coast.

The Turkish coast guard did not, however, inform Greek authorities that the girl had gone missing during the rescue operation.

The migrant boat was towed by a Frontex vessel to Samos.