Athens, Nov 9. (dpa/GNA) – At least 20 people died in four separate incidents, involving migrant boats, south of Crete over the weekend, Greek news channel ERTnews reported on Monday.
A total of 133 people have been rescued and at least two remain missing, the channel reported. Search and rescue operations are continuing.
In the first incident, the Greek coastguard rescued 28 Sudanese migrants from a boat off southern Crete on Saturday evening, and recovered eight bodies. Two people are still missing.
Survivors said they had left Libya several days earlier, and paid between €1,000 ($1,120) and €2,500 for the journey.
Two men, aged 16 and 28, were detained on suspicion of people smuggling. In the same area, the crew of a passing container ship spotted another refugee boat and alerted the authorities. A Greek coastguard patrol boat rescued 18 people, while 12 passengers were recovered dead.
In this case, Greek media reported that there had been no information yet on the nationality or departure point of the migrants.
In two further rescue operations, another 87 people were rescued. Both boats were spotted by aerial surveillance from the EU border agency Frontex, one carrying 47 passengers and the other 40.
Frontex personnel took the people on board and brought them to the coastal village of Kali Limenes. Although arrivals in Greece have fallen overall this year, migration to Crete has risen sharply, with more people departing from Libya.
Crete is about 350 kilometres from Libya at its closest point. Almost two-thirds of refugees originally come from Sudan and Bangladesh, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said.
As of November 1, more than 22,500 people have arrived on Crete this year, more than in all of last year, when about 20,200 arrived.
Across Greece, however, UNHCR has so far recorded about 37,500 arrivals, compared with 42,000 for all of last year.
GNA