Greek coast guards scoured for survivors in the Aegean Sea on Saturday after the latest in a series of migrant boat accidents that have killed at least 30 people in just days.
Late Friday, the coastguard found 16 bodies, in-cluding those of three women and a baby, and res-cued 63 people from a boat that overturned and sank near the island of Paros.
According to those rescued, around 80 people had been on the vessel that was bound for Italy. Smugglers operating from Cesme and Bodrum on the Turkish coast are packing migrants in yachts to send them to Italy using new, more dangerous routes, according to the ERT television channel.
Three coast guard patrol boats, private vessels, a coast guard plane as well as divers searched for more survivors, officials said.
The latest tragedy — the third since Wednesday — came amid high smuggler activity not seen in Greek waters in months.
Hours earlier, 11 bodies were recovered from another boat that ran aground on an islet north of the Greek island of Antikythera on Thursday evening.
Coast guard said on Saturday that two of the rescued migrants — both men suspected of being the smugglers — were arrested.
Ninety people stranded on the islet were res-cued. And on Wednesday, a dinghy carrying mi-grants capsized off the island of Folegandros, killing at least three people.
– ‘Indifferent to human life’ – Thirteen people were rescued, while dozens remain missing, Greek authorities said.
Survivors gave conflicting accounts: Some said there had been 32 people on board, while others put the number around 50, a coast guard official told AFP.
The UN refugee agency said the Folegandros accident could end up being the worst in the Aegean this year, as an unknown number of people were still missing. “This shipwreck is a painful reminder that peo-ple continue to embark on perilous voyages in search of safety,” said Adriano Silvestri, the UNHCR’s assistant representative in Greece.—APP
