At least eleven people died when a boat that transported migrants and refugees castaway in front of a small island in the south of Greeceauthorities said.
Greece’s coast guard said on Friday it had rescued more than 90 people after their sailboat collided with rocks north of the remote island of Antikythera the day before. Seven bodies were initially recovered and search efforts are continuing, he said. The death toll was later revised up, to 11.
Among those rescued so far were 27 children, 11 women and 52 men, a coast guard official told the AFP news agency. “It is not yet clear how many were on the ship before it sank,” the official said.
They carry out rescue operation for the castaways
At least eleven dead in a shipwreck off an island in Greece.
The coast guard released a video of the rescue operation. It showed people being put on life rafts and transferred to a patrol boat. The survivors were taken to the port of Piraeus, near the capital, Athens. Two days ago, three deaths and dozens of missing persons were reported in the sinking of a migrant ship in Greece.
In a separate incident on Friday, Greek police arrested three people on smuggling charges and detained 92 migrants and refugees after a yacht ran aground in the southern Peloponnese region.
Grace, passage of migrants and refugees
At least eleven dead in a shipwreck off an island in Greece.
Greece is one of the main routes to the European Union for migrants and refugees fleeing conflict and poverty in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and beyond, although the number of arrivals has dropped significantly since 2015-2016, when more than a million people, mainly Syrian refugees, crossed the country to other EU states.
Most try to cross in boats from the Turkish coast to the nearby Greek islands in the eastern Aegean. But with increased patrols and reports of summary deportations back to Turkey for those arriving, Turkey-based smugglers have increasingly sent sailing ships full of migrants and refugees across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
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