A boat carrying hundreds of migrants, which sent out a distress signal at sea between Monday and Tuesday, November 22, docked at a port on the Greek island of Crete, the coast guard announced on Tuesday.
According to the public TV channel ERT, 430 people are on this ship, which can be towed by a fishing boat to the port of Paleochora in the southwest of Crete. Few “According to their own statement, there are 400 to 500 people on boardA Coast Guard spokesman said.
Sad call at night
No indication was given about the nationality of those persons. Images from the ERT channel actually showed the men on the deck of the apparently dilapidated and rusted vessel. The coastguard was alerted shortly after midnight on Monday night into Tuesday when strong winds blew in the area, on the far south-west of Crete, Greece’s largest island.
They said two cargo ships, an oil tanker and two Italian fishing boats were nearby. Migrant smugglers are now taking a longer and more dangerous route south of Crete to enter the European Union due to increased patrols by the Greek coast guard and the European border control agency Frontex in the eastern Aegean.
“80 percent of flows from Turkey go directly to ItalyLast week, the Minister of Migration of Greece, Notis Mitarachi, announced to the private TV channel Skai TV. Human tragedies are on the rise due to the risks of migrants raising makeshift boats in stormy or even rough seas during the fall and winter.
On October 11, at least thirty people died in two shipwrecks near the islands of Lesbos and Kythera. In this latest shipwreck, which killed at least eight people, dozens of survivors, mostly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, who were stuck at the foot of a cliff, were hoisted up by rescuers.
At the beginning of November, as a result of two shipwrecks near the islands of Samos and Euboea, more than 21 people died, tens of people were missing.
Source: Le Figaro
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