Lesbos: At least four people dead after migrant boat sinks

Greek news sources said Monday (August 28) that a boat carrying around 22 migrants had sunk in waters near the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos, which lies close to Turkey. The coast guard said one of its vessels had rescued 18 survivors but that four others were deceased. Aegean Boat Report (ABR), an NGO which is often contacted by migrants in distress in the Aegean Sea, said there had been 23 people on board and 19 were rescued.

The survivors included nationals of Yemen, Palestine and Somalia, according to the news channel ERT. They arrived in the port of Mytilene on Lesbos on Monday morning. ABR said they were taken from there to the migrant reception center at nearby Mavrovouni.

ERT said that the boat had been located three nautical miles inside Turkish territorial waters, and that Turkish authorities were informed but had not responded. There was no initial reaction from Turkish authorities to the accusations.

More arrivals in Greece

There has been a significant increase in the number of migrants making the eastern Mediterranean crossing to Greece over the past two months. 

Over the weekend, the Greek coast guard said it picked up dozens of people from boats near eastern Aegean Sea islands. Several videos were published by the coast guard on its website and social media sites appearing to show groups of migrants – including small children – being rescued from small boats off Samos, Lesbos and Kos.

Also read: Greece: 90 people rescued in Aegean Sea as number of migrants rises

The government in Athens says the rise in migrant crossings is due to favorable summer weather and smugglers taking advantage of an increase in Aegean small boat traffic during the tourist season.

So far this year, more than 14,000 people have reached Greece by land and sea, according to United Nations figures. That figure represents about 10% of the total Mediterranean migrant crossings, most of which – about 104,000 – were to Italy. Arrivals in Greece for the whole of 2022 totaled 19,000.

Over 2,720 deaths this year

For many migrants, the attempted Mediterranean crossing ends in death, mostly by drowning. So far in 2023, at least 2,021 migrant deaths and disappearances have been recorded in the Central Mediterranean, as well as 48 in the Eastern Mediterranean and 203 in the Western Mediterranean, not including those trying to reach the Canary Islands from Africa’s northwest coast.

One of the worst migrant boat disasters in recent years happened in June, when a fishing trawler heading from Libya to Italy with an estimated 500-750 people on board sank off southwestern Greece.

There were only 104 survivors from the Pylos tragedy. The bodies of 86 people were recovered and 510 others are believed to have died, according to testimonies provided to the International Organization for Migration Greece, UNHCR, the Greek coast guard and Alarm Phone. 

With AP