At least 59 people drowned in the sinking of a migrant boat overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday off the Peloponnese peninsula in southwestern Greece, according to a new report from the guards -ribs.
The boat on board which were “hundreds” of migrants, according to a source in the Greek Ministry of Migration, capsized 47 nautical miles from the Greek coast, in international waters.
During the massive rescue operation that began early Wednesday morning, a total of 104 people were rescued, four of whom are hospitalized in Kalamata, a town in southern Peloponnese.
The Greek Coast Guard said that when the boat sank, none of the people it was carrying, whose nationality was not provided, was equipped with a life jacket.
The boat was spotted for the first time on Tuesday afternoon by a plane from Frontex, the European Border Surveillance Agency, but the migrants on board “refused any help”, the port authorities said in a previous press release. Greek.
In addition to the port police patrol boats, a frigate from the Greek navy, an airplane and a helicopter from the air force as well as six boats which sailed in the area took part in this rescue operation.
According to initial information from the authorities, the boat transporting the migrants had sailed from Libya to Italy.
At the external borders of the European Union in the Mediterranean, Greece is a common passage for many of those seeking to migrate to the European Union from neighboring Turkey.
Many shipwrecks, often deadly, take place in the Aegean Sea while Greece is regularly accused by NGOs and the media of turning back migrants seeking asylum in the EU.
Besides this route, these people also try to pass directly to Italy by crossing the Mediterranean south of the Peloponnese or the island of Crete.
06/14/2023 13:39:03 – Athens (AFP) – © 2023 AFP