Is Turkey's plan to stop flow of refugees legal?
Turkey's offer to the European Union to stop the flow of refugees to Greece is compelling — but is it legal?
ANKARA, Turkey — The “captain” of the sunken boat was warming himself under a blanket when the Greek coast guard officers grabbed him. They marched him to where the corpses of three of his passengers lay.
The guards forced him to kneel down, and one said, “OK, look, eh!” The guards then revealed the faces of the drowned refugees — children ages 2-4 — to one of their fathers, asking him to identify his child.
The Sky News video did not catch the father’s reaction, but it caught the captain breaking down, trembling and sobbing loudly. Identified only as Ozkan A., a Turk, he had tried to take 23 refugees across the 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of sea between Turkey and the Greek island of Samos.
Smugglers reportedly paid Ozkan $3,000 for every boatload of refugees. Greece charged him with manslaughter, smuggling refugees and causing a shipwreck. A Turkish newspaper found his father, who said his son was of subnormal intelligence.
