Death of 7 Migrants in Greece During Police Pursuit

Seven migrants died and eight others were injured in northern Greece after their vehicle overturned while attempting to escape a police checkpoint on a highway near the Turkish border, according to the Greek police on Friday. Six men and one woman were killed in the incident that occurred around midnight on the highway between the city of Thessaloniki and the Turkish border. The driver, a Moldovan national suspected of being a human smuggler, attempted to evade a security checkpoint, leading to a police chase. The police stated that the vehicle carrying the migrants breached the protective barrier on the highway and overturned. They added that the nationalities of the deceased are not yet known, but all the injured are men from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal. Migrants from Asia and the Middle East seeking to enter the European Union often use the Evros River, which forms the border between Turkey and Greece, a member of the EU. Greece, particularly its islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, has frequently been the first port of entry for waves of migrants and asylum seekers coming from Turkey aiming to reach Europe.