Canada Provided Info to Turkey, Greece on Location of Migrants in Sea

The Canadian maritime task force provided during its deployment to the Aegean Sea with information on the location of migrants in Turkey and Greece, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Fredericton Commander Trevor MacLean told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — At present, the Fredericton is deployed to the Mediterranean as part of Operation REASSURANCE to support NATO assurance measures in Central and Eastern Europe.

"We were strictly tracking and reporting the migrants," MacLean said on Friday. "We provided information to the Turkish coastguard and the Greek coastguard."

From February 12 to March 31, the task force was deployed to the Aegean to conduct reconnaissance and monitoring of migrant crossings in the area.

The EU states are currently struggling to deal with a massive refugee influx, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Middle East and North Africa. The EU's border agency Frontex recorded more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings into the bloc in 2015.

The Aegean Sea is one of the main transit routes for refugees heading for Greece from Turkish territory.