A 26-year-old Afghan migrant faces up to ten years in prison after being charged with child endangerment following the drowning of his six-year-old son while trying to reach Europe by boat from Turkey.
The charges are related to a shipwreck off the Greek island of Samos in the Aegean Sea on November 8th, 2020. The case could present a major challenge to migrants attempting to make the voyage to Europe to claim asylum if the Afghan is convicted, Dimitris Choulis, the lawyer for the accused, has claimed.
According to a report from the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, the prosecution of the Afghan father is the first of its kind in Europe.
Despite accusations from the Afghan’s lawyer that the prosecution is an attack on the right to asylum, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi stressed that the case was not to be taken as a sign that the government was cracking down on migration.
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