According to IOM the Turkish Coastguard received two high-tech search and rescue vessels, and will receive four more until the end of the year funded by the European Union. The vessels are part of a 20.000.000 EUR agreement between the EU and IOM, who will deliver the boats to the Turkish CG and additionally will offer trainings and support.

While HarekAct generally supports the idea of rescue missions, it is very important to stress that IOM – acting as a service partner for the EU – is again using the narrative of saving lives. Instead of giving those vessels to organizations specialized on rescue mission  that operate from the Greek islands, the aim of the cooperation is obviously to increase the capacities of the Turkish border control and thereby to prevent more refugees from crossing to Greece.

More lives will be saved thru a joint EU-IOM project providing new, hightech search&rescue boats to the TRCoastGuard https://t.co/lAZDVBqDPV pic.twitter.com/hhJ80vP6pW

— IOM Türkiye (@IOMTurkiye) June 19, 2017

Read the IOM press statement with further information here