Refugee pushbacks: Greece prepares to indict whistleblowers

Activists raise alarm over the pattern of pushbacks, which gained momentum after Turkey encouraged refugees to enter Greece, as the EU turns a blind eye.

Athens, Greece – In the small hours of April 3, a rubber dinghy filled with asylum seekers set out from the Turkish coast near the town of Babanli. Among the 27 passengers, 11 were children. Their destination was the Greek island of Lesbos. By 4:31am, when they were just 450 metres (1,476 feet) from Lesbos’s northern shore, their engine sputtered out.