Separately Thursday, Greek authorities reported they had returned 14 migrants to neighboring Turkey, bringing to almost 500 the total of people sent back under this year’s deal between the European Union and Turkey.
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The Phoenix, a rescue boat run by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and the Italian Red Cross (CRI), recovered the corpses of two women, one man and the baby while the five-year-old’s body was picked up by a fishing boat, the organisations said. At a video released by local media, tourists appear to be amazed as migrants walk through sunbeds, accompanied by the Coast Guard.
In another incident underlining the dangers facing migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, Greece’s coast guard on Friday rescued 50 migrants who ran aground on a chain of rocky islands off the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese.
Some 11,000 of those, including 3,800 children, are being held in migrant camps on the Greek Islands in camps which Save the Children warned earlier this week are already “bursting at the seams”.
The public order ministry said four Pakistani and two Algerian nationals who had entered Greece illegally were taken back by boat from the eastern island of Lesbos Thursday.
Hot spots and detention centres in the Greek islands are still beyond capacity, while relocation moves still really slowly. Greece as a whole is housing just over 58,000 migrants, most of whom have applied for asylum.
Turkish authorities on Wednesday officially sought their return, accusing them of participating in the July 15 coup attempt.
Last year, Greece was the main point of entry into the EU for hundreds of thousands of people seeking better lives in northern and central European countries. At least three people have died on Thursday morning during the sinking of a wooden boat full with migrants as they tried to reach the Italian coasts. A March deal between the European Union and Turkey, combined with Balkan border closures to migrants, has led to a dramatic drop in the number of new arrivals.
Despite the extreme danger involved, some migrants are still turning to the longer, considerably more perilous route from Libya to Italy.
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A Spanish aid group rescued at least 100 people from three separate boats in the area on Thursday. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
