At least 5 lifeless after migrant boat capsizes close to Greece | EUROtoday

At least 5 individuals have died after a wood migrant boat capsized off Greece’s southern island of Gavdos on Friday night time, sparking an enormous rescue operation.

So far, 39 males onboard the boat, principally from Pakistan, have been rescued by the cargo ships crusing within the space. They have been transferred to the island of Crete, the Greek coastguard stated.

The variety of lacking individuals has not but been confirmed, however survivors of the boat stated there have been dozens of others onboard. These reviews haven’t been confirmed by Greek officers.

Coastguard boats, naval plane, service provider vessels and an Italian frigate have been scouring the world since Greek authorities had been alerted concerning the incident on Friday night time because the wood boat approached Europe’s most southerly level of Gavdos.

More than 100 different individuals had been rescued in separate rescue operations south of the island of Crete, the Greek coastguard stated. Three operations concerned separate incidents off the island of Gavdos and a fourth off the southern Peloponnese area on the southern mainland.

Coastguard officers consider the boats left collectively from Libya, however that is but to be confirmed.

In the 2 different operations off Gavdos, 136 individuals had been rescued. A Malta-flagged cargo ship rescued 47 migrants from a ship round 40 nautical miles from Gavdos, whereas 89 migrants had been rescued round 28 nautical miles off the tiny island in Greece’s south coast.

Another 28 individuals had been rescued off the Peloponnese, with nobody reported lacking.

The coastguard was supported by navy helicopters and vessels from the European border safety company Frontex throughout its in a single day search and rescue missions.

From 2015 to 2016, Greece was the favoured gateway to the European Union for individuals from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Nearly a million individuals landed on Greek islands, principally by way of inflatable dinghies, on this interval.

This yr, incidents involving migrant boats and shipwrecks close to Crete and Gavdos have elevated. The United Nations Refugee company (UNHCR) estimates that 58,226 males, ladies and youngsters had arrived within the nation by 8 December in contrast with of 48,720 final yr.

In 2023, a whole lot of migrants drowned in one of many Mediterranean sea’s deadliest ever disasters, when an overcrowded vessel capsized and sank in worldwide waters off the southwestern Greek coastal city of Pylos.