ATHENS, Oct 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least one man has died and two were missing after a wooden boat carrying 100 migrants sank south of the small southern Greek island of Gavdos on Wednesday, Greece’s coast guard said.
A total of 97 people were rescued by a passing cargo ship and were being taken to the city of Heraklion on the island of Crete, authorities said.
The survivors were 50 men from Pakistan, 39 men and two women from Sudan, five men from Bangladesh and one from Somalia. The boat sank about 40 kilometers south of Gavdos, the coast guard said. Survivors reported that three men, from Pakistan and Sudan, were missing.
The body of one man was recovered while a search and rescue operation continued for the other two missing passengers. The reasons for the boat’s sinking were not immediately clear.
The incident comes a day after two women and two children died off the eastern Greek island of Kos when a smuggling boat crossing from nearby Turkey capsized. Another 27 people were rescued.
Greece lies on a popular route into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with tens of thousands heading to Greek islands, usually in smuggling boats from the nearby Turkish coast, or making the longer and more treacherous journey across the Mediterranean from north Africa.
By early October this year, more than 42,000 migrants were registered as having arrived in Greece, with the vast majority – more than 36,500 – arriving by sea, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency. — NNN-AGENCIES
