Two migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday charged the lives of 16 people, with seven killed when a ship overturned on the coast of Greece and another nine in a shipwreck off the coast of neighboring Turkiye.
Seven people, including two children, died and another 23 were rescued on Thursday when an inflatable boat transported migrants overturned on Greek Lesbos Island, the Coast Guard said.
Initially, the Coast Guard said that four bodies had been discovered in the Aegean Sea, but after a search by Patrol Boats, three others were found, a spokeswoman told the spokeswoman, he said AFP.
The boat transported about 30 people and overturned in a temperate climate a short distance from the coast of neighboring Turkiye.
“His boat took water and began to sink,” said the spokesman, added that the searches of any other survivor were ongoing.
Among the dead were four women, a boy and a girl, said the Coast Guard. No details have been published about the other three, including their country of origin.
The location of Greece in the end southeast of Europe in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea makes its islands a common passage for undocumented migrants in Asia and the Middle East who try to reach Western Europe.
Meanwhile, nine migrants died and another 25 were rescued after their boat began to sink on the western coast of Turkiye, authorities said.
The incident took place on Thursday morning off the coast of the district of Ayvacik, said the office of the local governor and the Coast Guard.
“As a result of the search and rescue efforts, nine organizations were found and 25 migrants were rescued,” said the governor’s office in a statement, adding that the search was ongoing to find a missing migrant.
His nationalities were not known immediately.
Deaths are common during the dangerous crossing. The UN said that it was reported that almost 2,500 people died last year.
Last month, the Greek maritime police said a migrant died and that another 18 were rescued after a smuggler left them while trying to cross Turkiye.
According to the UN refugee agency, almost 9,000 people have entered Greece since the beginning of the year, most of them per sea. There were more than 54,000 tickets in 2024, according to the agency’s figures.
The conservative government of Greece has tightened the country’s position on migration.
“If you want to enter Greece illegally and have no right to asylum, we will do everything possible to send it from where it comes from,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Parliament.
“The smugglers and the NGOs that cooperate with them will not determine who enters our country,” he said.
