Three injured in human trafficking incident in the Aegean

The Syrians, a 19 year old woman, and two men 30 and 45 men were on the vessel moving between the islands of Chios and Oinousses, were spotted by the Coast Guard patrol vessel. The officers spotted four passengers, among which a trafficker.

They started pursuit in an attempt to immobilize it. According to the official Coast Guard report, the high powered vessel did not slow down, started dangerous evasive manoeuvrings and finally attempted to ram the Coast Guard boat.

In order to avoid ramming, the officers fired a few warning shots in the air. The trafficker, who was also piloting the vessel, didn't stop his attempts to ram the Coast Guard ship, so the officers fired shots on the vessel's bow. Unfortunately the shots ricocheted, injuring the three migrants on it.

The officers managed to immobilize the vessel, they boarded it, arrested the Turkish trafficker and found 16 illegal migrants inside the vessel's cabin, three of which were injured from the fire. They took both the trafficker and the injured migrants to the port of Chios, where the injured were taken straight to hospital. According to the initial medical reports, they are in no danger.

Another Coast Guard vessel was sent to the area, received the remaining migrants and brought them to the Chios port. Investigation showed that the arrested Turkish trafficker had already transported some illegal migrants to the island hours before the incident and was planning on another couple of routes for 32 migrants in total.

The Coast Guard is under investigation for the deadly Farmakonissi disaster last month, where 11 migrants were killed during an operation to restrain their vessel during stormy weather conditions.