22 killed as migrants’ boats sink off Greece
Print Edition
TWENTY-TWO migrants drowned and at least 10 were missing after their vessels capsized off the Greek island of Samos early yesterday in seas where hundreds have died attempting the perilous crossing this year alone, the Greek coast guard said.
Thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East pack into often unsafe boats to get into the European Union through Greece, Italy, Malta and other coastal states. The numbers have increased since the “Arab Spring” uprisings.
Two boats, a yacht and a life boat, carrying about 68 people, capsized about four nautical miles off Samos in the eastern Aegean Sea, close to the Turkish coast. Authorities said they had rescued 36 people and recovered the bodies of 12 women, six men and four children.
“Most of those who died were trapped inside one of the boats,” a Greek coast guard official said.
In a similar incident in March, seven migrants lost their lives when their boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos.
Authorities said they don’t yet know the nationality of the migrants. Helicopters, coast guard vessels, a navy warship and a cruise liner are searching for the missing, the official said.
Greece has long struggled with illegal immigration.
A migrant boat mishap that killed at least two and left 10 missing in January became a headache for the government, which had to deny claims its coast guard triggered the accident and that Greece breached EU law by trying to push the migrants back to Turkey.
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