A boat full of asylum seekers arrived at the shores of western Greece earlier this week, with a Kurdish MP and 20 former Turkish police officers onboard.

According to the Greek newspaper Ilia Live, the policemen and the member of parliament fled Turkey in order to escape persecution from the Turkish government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The fishing boat, which held 65 passengers overall, was also boarded by other migrants and reportedly ten members of the outlawed terror group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They arrived at the coast of the Greek town Katakolo on Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking to the paper following their arrival, one of the police officers said: “We are from Turkey and we were police officers,” showing the reporters a picture of him on his phone as proof. “We have to get out of here.”

Full story: middleeastmonitor.com

Middle East Monitor