At least seven migrants have died, including two children, in another shipwreck off Greece’s Lesvos island in the Aegean Sea when their vessel capsized, authorities said on Thursday.
A broad search and rescue operation has been underway since Thursday’s early morning hours with at least one person missing as of early afternoon and 23 others rescued after being spotted by a Super Puma helicopter that had also been searching the area for survivors. A diver, four Coast Guard vessels, and a nearby ship are also participating in the search and rescue operation.
Among the dead recovered from the water are three women, one man, a boy and a girl. According to reports, 31 persons from Afghanistan and Syria were aboard the vessel that was detected by a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol boat around 2am local time. Given that weather conditions were good in the area, authorities are investigating why the boat carrying the migrants capsized.
Footage that aired on Greek Skai TV, purported to show that the vessel carrying the migrants was a small rubber boat, whose wooden flooring had collapsed.
The incident took place in Skala Sykamias, a part of northeastern Lesvos that is favored by smugglers for crossing to the island from the nearby Turkish coast.
In December 2024, at least eight people died as a speedboat carrying migrants and asylum seekers from Turkey sank five nautical miles east of Afantou Beach off Rhodes, Greece.
The boat was spotted by port authorities as the smuggler was helping migrants disembark. The boat’s operator lost control while performing dangerous maneuvers to escape from the Coast Guard’s floating vessel, resulting in the migrants’ falling into the sea.
Eighteen migrants had been rescued, and eight bodies have been recovered. The speedboat’s operator has been arrested, and initial information indicates he is a Turkish national. The incident took place in broad daylight.
Also in December, 35 migrants from Pakistan were presumed dead after their boat sank near Greece’s southernmost island of Gavdos. The Pakistani Embassy in Athens said that 47 people have been rescued as the Greek Coast Guard called off rescue efforts.
According to the embassy in Athens, three boats carrying 175 illegal migrants of various nationalities, including Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians and Sudanese crew members, capsized off the Greek coast.
While all the passengers on two of the boats were rescued, only 39 out of 83 had been rescued from the third. Several teens were on board, and at least one 12-year-old Pakistani was among the passengers.
In late November 2024, four migrants, including two children and two women, died after their boat sank off the northeastern coast of Samos in the Aegean Sea.
The shipwreck took place in the early morning hours, near Cape Praso, under good weather conditions in the area. Sixteen people have been rescued while it remains unknown how many were on the boat. Search and rescue teams have been looking for more survivors. It is believed the boat sank after hitting a rocky area on the island’s coast.
The deadly migrant boat incident took place only days after another eight people, six children and two women, died in the same coastal area off Samos. The coastguard said 40 people had been rescued and it is believed about 50 people were on board the vessel.
