Coast Guard Crew maritime patrol , during Frontex mission in Greece, within the common Joint Maritime Operation "EPN POSEIDON SEA" saved and handed over safely to the Greek authorities, 56 foreigners, who were in danger in the Aegean waters, on a small craft. Among those saved, originating from Syria, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria, Kuwait and Tunisia, were also nineteen minors, two of them only a few months old.
February 2nd 2017, around 10.00 a.m., the Romanian Vessel MAI 1102, while surveying the external borders of the European Union in Joint Maritime Operation "Poseidon" in Greece, coordinated by Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) observed a small boat overloaded with people in distress on board, in the Aegean Sea.
After assessing the situation (risk of sinking and low temperatures), Romanian Border Officers proceeded to transshipping 56 people onto the Coast Guard vessel (22 men, 15 women and 19 infants) including two babies only a few months old. The persons, originated from Syria, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Algeria, were offered first aid, assistance and food and were safely handed over to the Greek authorities for further procedures.”
The Coast Guard Crew maritime patrol, with a crew of 23 border guards on board, has been conducting, since 1st of January 2017, for 4 months, surveillance missions of the maritime external borders of the European Union, in the Aegean Sea. Since the beginning of their mission in Greece, the Romanian border guards have saved individually, and in cooperation with the local police in Chios, Port Police and Frontex teams, 285 foreigners who arrived in the territorial Greek waters, aboard small boats.
