Greek coastguard launches search operation to seek out dozens of lacking migrants with help from an Italian frigate, helicopters.
5 individuals have died after a migrant boat sank off the Greek island of Gavdos, south of Crete, based on Greece’s coastguard, with 40 others reported lacking and 39 rescued.
A big rescue operation involving vessels and plane was underneath method south of Gavdos after the boat capsized shortly after midnight on Saturday, the coastguard mentioned.
In separate incidents on Saturday, a Malta-flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants from a ship crusing about 40 nautical miles (74km) off Gavdos, whereas a tanker rescued one other 88 individuals about 28 nautical miles (52km) off the island.
In keeping with preliminary info, coastguard officers imagine the boats left collectively from Libya.
Greece obtained almost a million migrants from the Center East, Africa and Asia in 2015-2016, most of whom took the damaging route of crossing the ocean on inflatable dinghies.
Comparable shipwrecks off Crete and Gavdos, that are comparatively remoted within the central Mediterranean, have elevated over the previous yr.
In keeping with the Ministry of Migration, Greece has seen a 25-percent improve this yr within the variety of individuals getting into, fleeing struggle and poverty, with a 30-percent improve to Rhodes and the southeast Aegean.
Earlier accidents
A number of comparable lethal accidents have struck in current weeks.
In late November, eight people, six of them minors, died north of the island of Samos, on a route ceaselessly utilized by people-smugglers.
In keeping with United Nations statistics, that are based mostly largely on survivor accounts, 1,536 individuals have died or gone lacking and are presumed useless within the central Mediterranean to date this yr.
The Worldwide Group for Migration mentioned greater than 30,309 refugees have died within the Mediterranean previously decade, together with greater than 3,000 final yr.
