They are fulfilled 10 years of the image that toured the planet: a Turkish Gendarmedressed red and taking notes in a notebook, in front of the body of a child lying face down in the sand. With shoes, blue pants and red shirt, Aylan Kurdi, three years old, lay lifeless While the sea hit his head.
The morning of September 2, 2015the little one Aylan He died when the boat in which he was traveling with his family was undone shortly after sailing. The Kurdinative to Kobanethey had fled from the civil war in Syria and they sought to get from Bodrum, In Türkiyeto the Greek island of Kos. Only the father survived.
The photograph of his body on the beach shook consciences and put Europe in front of the challenge of answer to an exodus I had already left 1 One million Syrian refugees And more than 1,200 dead at sea During 2014 and 2015.
The agreement with Türkiye
In March 2016, the European Union signed an agreement with Türkiye for a payment of 6,000 million euros so that the country contained the migratory flow. The measure reduced the crossings by the Aegean, although it did not eliminate the deaths.
From Aylan’s tragedy, at least 2,242 people They died or disappeared trying to get to Greece From Türkiye.
Today, that route is no longer the busiest. The most used paths connect Africa with the Canary Islands either Libya with southern Italywhere since 2015 more than 20,000 migrants.
The current figures
Despite the change of routes, Greece continues to receive refugees. Only in 2025, 29,000 people They crossed from Türkiye, according to United Nations. Last year, 125 died In the attempt.
The child’s own father, Abdullah Kurdihe expressed days after the tragedy: “My children were the most beautiful children in the world. They lifted me every morning, so we were playing. Now they have left … I want the world to realize.”
“I lived an immense disaster. I don’t want more people to suffer too.” After that experience, he left the immigration route and returned to Kobane “, sentenced.
In 2015, the majority of those who crossed the Aegean were Syrian who escaped from the civil war, of the advance of the Islamic state and of the bombings of Bashar al Asad with the support of Russia and Iran.
Today, in 2025, with the Syrian War concluded and ASAD refugee in Moscowthe exits from Syria were drastically reduced. Most migrants trying to get to Greece are Afghan, Egyptians, Sudanese, erythre and Somali.
Greece’s position
Complaints against Greek border policy multiplied. There are multiple testimonies and tests of hot returns and episodes of violence in Those who refugees were stripped of their belongings and pushed back to Türkiye. The Hellenic government denies these accusations despite the abundance of documentation against it.
The conservative prime minister Kyriakos mitsotakis He warned a month ago: “Migration is a recurring challenge, not a passing crisis. It changes, intensifies or lowers, but never disappears. The traffickers adapt, and now they have begun to operate since Libya towards our country ”.
The president said that Greece already works to block a new route to Crete And he remarked: “Our message is firm: Greece will not allow any illegal entry to our country or to Europe. As we did in Evros, we will do everything necessary to stop it. ”
Source: Ambito
