Five dead, dozens missing as boat sinks in Gavdos, Greece. migration news
The Greek Coast Guard launched a search operation to find dozens of missing migrants with the assistance of an Italian frigate, helicopters.
Five people have died after a migrant boat sank off the Greek island of Gavdos, south of Crete, while 40 others were reported missing and 39 were rescued, according to Greece’s coast guard.
The coast guard said a major rescue operation involving ships and aircraft was underway south of Gavdos after the boat capsized just after midnight Saturday.
In separate incidents on Saturday, a Malta-flagged cargo ship rescued 47 migrants from a boat sailing about 40 nautical miles (74 km) off Gavdos, while a tanker sank about 28 nautical miles (52 km) off the island. Another 88 people were saved.
According to preliminary information, coast guard officials believe the boats had departed together from Libya.
Nearly one million migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia arrived in Greece in 2015–2016, most of whom took the dangerous sea crossing on inflatable boats.
Crete and Gavdos, which are relatively isolated in the central Mediterranean, have seen a rise in similar shipwrecks in the past year.
Greece has seen a 25 percent increase this year in the number of people entering the country fleeing war and poverty, with a 30 percent increase in Rhodes and the southeast Aegean, according to the migration ministry.
past accidents
Several similar fatal accidents have occurred in recent weeks.
In late November, eight people died, six of them minors, north of the island of Samos, on a route often used by people-smugglers.
According to UN figures, which are largely based on survivors’ accounts, 1,536 people have been killed or are missing and presumed dead in the central Mediterranean so far this year.
The International Organization for Migration said more than 30,309 refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea over the past decade, including more than 3,000 last year.
