ATHENS (Reuters) -Three migrants drowned when their boat overturned off Greece’s southernmost island of Gavdos on Tuesday and the coast guard was still searching on Wednesday for people reported missing.
So far, 56 people have been rescued, including one injured person who had been hospitalised on the nearby large island of Crete, a coast guard official said.
Survivors said more people were in the boat when it capsized about 15 nautical miles (28 km) off Gavdos, another coast guard officer said. At least four vessels and an aircraft of the European Union border agency Frontex were looking for survivors.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa crossed into Europe.
Flows have ebbed since then but both Crete and Gavdos – the two Aegean islands nearest to the African coast – have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shore over the past year. But deadly accidents remain common.
At least 42 other migrants were missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat capsized off Libya’s coast last week, the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday.
The European Commission said on Tuesday that Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Yannis Souliotis; editing by Mark Heinrich)
