(AFP) Tchinda said the longed-for destination of his risky Aegean crossing — the island of Kos — was already tantalisingly in view when Greek vessels halted the boat he was sailing in along with 30 other migrants.
“First a navy ship blocked our way, then it was joined by two smaller Zodiac-type boats,” the 39-year-old from Cameroon told AFP.
“The coastguards were armed and shouted at us to go home,” he said in a series of phone interviews conducted between July 1 and 8.
A cellphone video shared by the Cameroonian with AFP shows a packed dinghy immobilised by a Greek coastguard patrol boat, with four crew members monitoring the migrants.
A second patrol boat and a third vessel can be seen in the distance.
