Two die as over 80 people are rescued in two separate operations in Greek waters
Source: InfoMigrants: reliable and verified news for migrants – InfoMigrants
A man and a boy drowned after a migrant boat overturned while reportedly being chased by Greek coast guard officials near the island of Rhodes. In another development, 67 people were rescued near Greece’s southernmost island of Gavdos, with the help of Frontex.
According to reports carried by The Associated Press (AP), the coast guard vessel was performing a regular patrol in eastern parts of the Aegean Sea near Turkey in the early hours of October 14 when it encountered a speedboat carrying migrants toward Rhodes.
The speedboat was signaled to stop but failed to do so, which resulted in the patrol vessel chasing the vessel, a statement by the coast guard said.
In a bid to evade the patrol vessel, the speedboat engaged in a number of dangerous maneuvers, which led to its capsizing.
All migrants on board were hurled into the sea, turning the routine patrol mission into a lifesaving operation, according to AP.
Two patrol boats came and picked up 12 men and four women from the waters while recovering the bodies of the man and the boy, whose age has not been specified yet.
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Three alleged smugglers under arrest
Police in Rhodes later arrested three of the 16 survivors on suspicion of being smugglers – two Armenians and one Azerbaijani national, all of whom were in their early 30s.
The three face serious charges, including causing a shipwreck, negligent homicide, and violating Greek immigration laws.
Just last week, four individuals had died further north in Aegean water, when a migrant boat sank near the island of Lesbos. There were 34 survivors in that tragedy at sea.
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67 saved near Gavdos
In an unrelated development, 67 migrants were rescued elsewhere in the Aegean Sea, when their boat ran into trouble south of Gavdos, Greece’s southernmost island located near Crete.
The rescue operation was conducted by a vessel belonging to the European Union border agency Frontex, which after completion took the migrants to the port of Gavdos, where they were given medical attention and underwent identification procedures, according to the Greek news outlet Ekathimerini.
Journeys to Crete and its small sister island Gavdos have been on the rise this year, with more migrants from Libya attempting to reach Greece instead of journeying to Italy.
Due to an influx of hundreds of migrants reaching this region this year, especially at its height during the summer months, Greece imposed a temporary freeze on new asylum procedures for migrants arriving in the southern islands from Libya.
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Greece remains at the forefront of EU migration
Greece remains one of the main entry points into the European Union for refugees fleeing conflict and war, as well as for migrants trying to escape poverty and destitution.
At the height of the so-called “refugee crisis” a decade ago, hundreds of thousands of people passed through Greece to get to other EU countries.
In 2016, the EU signed a controversial deal with Turkey to intercept and house migrants, which has helped to stem the flow of people coming to Europe to a large extent.
Still, many people in Turkey — and more recently those in Libya — try to evade authorities while attempting to reach Greece on boats and dinghies, which often are unseaworthy.
According to the IOM Missing Migrants Project, 2,820 migrants have died or gone missing on the Eastern Mediterranean route since 2014. For the Central Mediterranean route, which includes those journeys that started in Libya, the figure stands at 25,479 to date.
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with AP
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