Fifty-seven people were rescued and three died, off Paros Island, a few hours after a boat failed on an island near ancythry, making eleven dead and 90 survivors.
Le Monde with AFP
Three people died Friday, December 25 in the sinking of a boat with migrants on board at the Aegean sea, a few hours after a first sinking that had been eleven dead, according to the Greek coast guard. The three bodies were recovered and 57 people were rescued after this shipwreck off the island of Paros.
A few hours ago, eleven bodies had been recovered after the sinking of a boat with a hundred migrants on board, stranded Thursday, December 24 on an island from the south of the country. Some 90 survivors, including 52 men, 11 women and 27 children could be saved and evacuated Friday morning from this island located north of the Greek island of Antichthère, said a Greek coast guard manager. “Searches and rescue operations continue because it’s still unclear how many people were in the boat before it sinned,” he added.
2,500 dead between January and November
Thursday sinking had already occurred in the aftermath of a pneumatic canoe carrying migrants off the island of Folegandros, also in southern Greece, which has made at least three dead. Thirteen people – mainly Iraqis, but also Syrians and Egyptians – have been rescued, but dozens of others are still missing, according to the Greek authorities.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pointed out that the sinking off Folegandros had been the worst in Aegean Sea this year. “It reminds us painfully that people continue to embark on dangerous voyages in search of security,” reacted Adriano Silvestri, the deputy representative of UNHCR in Greece.
UNHCR estimates that more than 2,500 people have died or have disappeared at sea by trying to reach Europe between January and November. Nearly one million people, mainly Syrian refugees, arrived in the EU in 2015 after a journey from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands.