Athens, Jun. 11, (dpa/GNA) – The Greek coastguard rescued 90 migrants including 37 minors stranded in the sea off the island of Kythera and took them to Neapoli on the Peloponnesian coast, authorities said on Sunday.
The rescue operation was conducted on Saturday evening after the boat carrying the migrants ran into difficulty. All those aboard were in good health, a coastguard report said.
The coastguard reported that the migrants were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq and Egypt. Unconfirmed reports said the boat had started out from the Turkish coast.
Two men thought to be human traffickers have been detained.
During the summer months, many sailing boats and yachts are out on the Aegean and Ionian seas, making boats operated by human traffickers carrying migrants hard to distinguish.
As the boats are usually old and often overloaded, accidents are frequent. According to UN figures, at least 326 people died in the region last year. The Greek coastguard believes the actual figure to be considerably higher.
GNA