They were traveling on a boat that “was not prepared to accommodate so many people,” according to the Coast Guard.
The Greek Coast Guard has launched a search operation on Wednesday in the waters south of the island of Rhodes (Greece), in the Aegean Sea, after the sinking of a boat with migrants and refugees on board and the alleged disappearance of dozens of people. , according to the testimony of the survivors.
Emergency services have recovered 30 of these migrants alive, while an unknown number of people are unaccounted for. Authorities estimate that some 50 more migrants were traveling on this boat, which sank in international waters 38 miles from Rhodes.
A coastguard spokesman quoted by the ERT chain, Nikos Kokkalas, has said that the ship, 15 meters long and with a cabin, “was not prepared to accommodate so many people.” Of the survivors, only a few had life jackets.
The rescued are all men and, for the most part, come from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. According to the first information, they had left two days ago from the Turkish town of Antalya and were destined for Italy, as confirmed by Kokkalas.
More than a thousand migrants and refugees have lost their lives so far this year in the Mediterranean, according to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), which estimates at least 64 victims in the eastern part of this sea, in the waters that connect with countries such as Greece and Cyprus.
#rescue #migrants #search #fifty #shipwreck #Greece