At midday on Thursday, a Coast Guard patrol boat, which was on a scheduled patrol, spotted a speedboat disembarking foreign passengers in the sea area of ​​Agrilia, Lesvos. The speedboat then developed high speed heading towards the Turkish coast. The Coast Guard boat attempted to stop the speedboat using light and sound signals, with negative results.

Rights group Amnesty International says Turkey has illegally returned thousands of Syrian refugees to their war-torn homeland since mid-January, highlighting what the group says are ‘fatal flaws’ in a recently-agreed refugee deal between Turkey and the European Union.