Officials asserted that, in total, about 242 refugees and migrants were transferred to the Lesbos beaches of Molyvos and Petra during a search and rescue operation in that began Wednesday morning and included a helicopter and two Coast Guard vessels.
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Port police said it was not clear how many people might be in the water, with survivors giving a confusing picture of how many were on the boat that capsized off Lesbos.
Eighteen children were hospitalized, three in serious condition, local authorities said.
Lesbos, which lies less than 10 kilometres from the Turkish coast in the north Aegean Sea, has been a primary gateway for thousands of migrants entering the European Union’s outermost border this year. There has been a surge recently as migrants attempt to beat the worsening weather that makes sea crossings more unsafe.
Circumstances of the vessel’s sinking on Wednesday afternoon were unclear. Smugglers had to force passengers onto the boat at gunpoint because they were fearful about its seaworthiness, Greek state television quoted witnesses as saying.
It sank when its upper deck crammed with people collapsed onto the lower desk, broadcaster ERT reported.
And she added: “There are hundreds of people now in the sea”.
Elsewhere, another 123 people were rescued off the islands of Samos and in another incident off Lesbos.
At least 11 people – mostly children – died in five separate incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea on Wednesday, as thousands of people continued to head to the Greek islands from Turkey in frail boats and stormy weather. A baby has been missing for more than 12 hours. In makeshift shelters, volunteers and doctors offered assistance. A few of the survivors were sheltered in a chapel, a Reuters witness said.
A Swedish mayor says a standoff continues with 14 asylum-seekers who are refusing to move into fully equipped chalets in a remote and cold part of Sweden where they have been told to stay while their asylum applications are processed.
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The United Nations estimates more than 700,000 migrants have crossed to Europe by boat so far this year – many of them from war-ravaged Syria. “We have to take responsibility to hold them to account”.
