The Greek coast guard rescued twelve migrants, including children, in the Aegean Sea on Wednesday. Any help came too late for three migrants. Their bodies were recovered from the floods. The migrants’ boat sank off the Cycladic island of Folegandros.
Numerous people are still missing. In the search and rescue operation, helicopters, an airplane, several coast guard boats and passing ships took part, as the coast guard announced.
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The rescued would have given different information about how many people were on board. “We assume 30 to 50 people and continue the search,” said a spokesman for the coast guard on the state broadcaster. The sunken boat had hardly any rescue equipment. Only two of the survivors are said to have worn life jackets.
Most of the people who were rescued come from Iraq, it said. The boat with the migrants was probably on the way from Turkey to Italy, as reported by the TV station ERT. The Coast Guard said the boat had an engine failure and then sank.
Migrants keep trying to get from the Turkish Aegean coast or from other states in the east of the Mediterranean to the Greek mainland or Italy. In this way, they want to avoid having to stay in the registry camps on the islands in the east of the Aegean for long periods of time.
However, due to the long journey through the Mediterranean south or north of Crete, there is often machine damage to the often outdated boats that people smugglers sell to people. There is no official information on how many people died on these routes. (dpa, AFP)
