Second deadly migrant shipwreck off Aegean island

A migrant boat was shipwrecked early Thursday morning (November 28) northeast of Samos island. The Greek coast guard said the lifeless bodies of four people – two women and two children – were discovered in the water beside an overturned dinghy. Sixteen others were rescued.

The nationalities of the passengers have not been made public, nor is it known how many were on board. The coast guard has deployed patrol vessels, life boats and land teams to search for any who may be missing.

Mounting tragedies

The latest shipwreck happened not far from the spot where eight people, six of them children, drowned when their boat sank on Monday. About 40 people had been on the dinghy trying to reach Greece from Turkey. 

The UN children’s agency UNICEF issued a statement expressing its sympathies for the families of those who lost their lives in Monday’s shipwreck, which it called “yet another tragedy to mar these shores.” 

The agency said at least 2,508 migrants – among them children – have died attempting to cross the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to Europe since 2014.

It urged governments to use the Migration and Asylum Pact to strengthen their commitment to safeguarding children. “This must include ensuring safe, legal and accessible pathways for children to seek protection and reunite with family members,” the statement said.

Following the announcement of the deaths of four more migrants on Thursday, Greek photojournalist Anna Pantelia wrote on X “After a decade of witnessing people drowning at our doorstep, I find myself running out of words.”

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More asylum seekers expected in Greece

The number of people crossing from Turkey to Greece has risen this year, figures from the UN refugee agency show. More than 56,000 migrants have reached Greece in 2024 so far, compared with 49,000 last year. According to the Greek migration ministry, the island of Rhodes has seen a 30 percent increase in arrivals over the same period.

The migration minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, said Thursday that wars and conflicts would probably cause the number of people trying to enter Greece to rise further.

“They do not tend towards reducing the flow of migrants, but rather increasing them – with all the geopolitical turmoil, especially in the Middle East, with ongoing wars and other issues,” he told the private TV news channel Skai. He also said he expected the risk of tragedies in the eastern Aegean to increase in the coming weeks as the weather conditions worsen.

There has been a series of fatal shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea in the past few weeks. In addition to two deadly incidents this week, four people died in early November near Rhodes. In October, six people lost their lives in two separate shipwrecks near Kos and Samos.

Cracking down on borders, smugglers

In order to stop migrants from reaching Greece, the government intends to strengthen its borders. Panagiotopoulos said efforts will be renewed in January, when Poland takes over the presidency of the European Union, to secure EU funds for the construction of a border wall.

Greece also announced Thursday that police had arrested nine people suspected of running a smuggling operation that provided migrants with accommodation and false travel documents and escorted them to Athens airport, where they boarded flights to other European cities.

According to the AP news agency, the fees for their services ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 euros.

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With AFP, dpa, AP