Greece: One dead and over 90 migrants rescued from sea

Greek authorities say they have recovered a woman’s body from the water after rescuing 15 migrants, who were traveling on the same boat, off the island of Kos, in the eastern Aegean.

The boat is believed to have capsized due to rough weather during the night, reported the news agency Associated Press (AP).

Kos is not far from the Turkish coast. The woman was reported to be “unresponsive” when pulled from the water. Two of the survivors of the shipwreck were later treated in hospital, added AP.

Also read: One migrant dies and others rescued off Samos

Gavdos, near Crete

In a separate incident on Friday, (September 27), the Greek coast guard said that it had picked up 78 migrants from a wooden boat that was found to be sailing about 23 nautical miles off the tiny island of Gavdos, not far from Crete, reported the news agency Reuters.

There were no reports of injuries or missing people, confirmed AP.

Gavdos doesn’t have any reception infrastructure, and only a tiny permanent population. A coast guard official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that the migrants rescued would be taken to nearby Crete.

The news agency reported it wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the sailing boat on which they were traveling, or whether the migrants had been aiming to get to a Greek island, or had been hoping to sail further west towards Italy.

Various routes

While the majority of boats setting off from Turkey aim to arrive in Greece, in recent years, a new route has opened along the southern edge of Greece, hoping to avoid Greek coast guard patrols, and sail on to Italy.

In this part of the southern Mediterranean, some boats also set off from North African countries in the hope of reaching Italy and end up nearing land somewhere in Greece.

Both rescues followed an incident on Thursday when a merchant ship rescued around 70 migrants from another yacht in distress. These migrants were being transported by the merchant ship towards the southern Greek port of Kalamata.

The nationalities of the people involved has not yet been reported.

Also read: Greek NGO reveal staff lacking in migrant centers

Leros

Also on Friday, the Greek coast guard posted two separate incidents of migrants arriving from earlier in the week.

According to the Hellenic coast guard, on September 25 it detected a boat with foreigners on board in the area of Leros. Although the coast guard had signalled to the migrant boat to stop, it had continued towards the beach and disembarked 16 migrants, including 11 men, two women and three minors.

The following day, on September 26, a coast guard patrol boat detected another high speed inflatable boat approaching the same beach on Leros and disembarking a group of migrants. This time, the coast guard approached the boat, and a chase ensued.

The speed boat, which by now had just three people on board, approached a section of rocky coast on the island of Agathonissio, and the three men fled. According to a coast guard statement, they were later caught and identified as 22, 21 and 23-year-olds suspected of having smuggled the two groups of migrants to Leros.

A group of 19 migrants, including 14 men, two women and three minors, were later found on another part of Leros. The migrants were questioned by police and the three suspects are being charged with smuggling, illegal entry into the country, and endangering life, as well as disobedience for refusing to stop when the coast guard issued orders.

One of the suspected smugglers, the 22-year-old, was already on record, according to the coast guard, and had been issued with a refusal of entry notice to Schengen territory.

Samos

Two more similar incidents occurred on September 24, stated the Greek coast guard on its website. In both incidents, this time around the island of Samos, coast guards detected high speed boats bringing migrants from Turkey.

The pilots of the vessels refused to stop when asked by the coast guard, and managed to get near to the coast. At that point, states the coast guard, three of the foreigners on board jumped from the boat and got safely to shore. The coast guard then immobilized the boat safely and collected 16 migrants who were taken to Samos port. Of the three who made it to shore, according to the coast guard, one 17-year-old was identified as operator of the boat and was arrested for illegal entry and smuggling of third country nationals into Greek territory.

In an almost identical incident around the same time, another boat was seen approaching Samos from the Turkish coast. This time, the boat was allegedly operated by a 47-year-old “foreigner.”

According to the coast guard, the pilot of this ship attempted to ram a coast guard vessel, and then approached the coast where he and the 26 “foreign passengers” disembarked. This group, said the coast guard, included 11 men, five women and ten minors.

The migrants were all found to be in “good health” and were transferred to the port authorities in Samos. The 47-year-old was arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into the country, smuggling third-country nationals into Greece and “dangerous interference with ship traffic” as well as disobedience. The boat and his mobile phone were confiscated by the authorities.

With Reuters and AP 

Also read: Four confirmed dead in Samos migrant tragedy