(The Turkish Post) – At least 12 people died in two separate Greece migrant boat accidents in the eastern Aegean on Oct. 19, the Greek coast guard said, as boats carrying migrants from Türkiye ran into trouble off the islands of Samos and Lesbos.
Both vessels had set out from the Turkish coast, according to the coast guard. Rescuers pulled survivors from the water at both sites, and searches continued through the day for people still missing.
Greece migrant boat deaths off two islands
Off Samos, a speedboat capsized about four nautical miles north of the island early on Oct. 19. Five men and one woman died, the coast guard said, and 14 men were rescued. Authorities arrested one of the survivors, an Iranian national, on suspicion of running the crossing.
Off Lesbos, near the area of Agrilia, a second speedboat collided with a coast guard vessel as it made sharp maneuvers to avoid an inspection, the coast guard said. Six people died, among them an infant. A 37-year-old Turkish national who survived was arrested as the suspected operator of the boat. Accounts differ on which side of the patrol vessel was struck, and the circumstances are under investigation. Officials did not say the two boats were connected.
Coast guard searches for the missing
A coast guard vessel and a helicopter searched the waters off Lesbos for about three people still unaccounted for. The shipping ministry said the operation would continue as long as there was a chance of finding survivors.
Currents and the traffic in the narrow strait between Lesbos and the Turkish mainland complicate such searches, which often run for days. The Greece migrant boat deaths off Samos and Lesbos were among the heaviest tolls recorded in the Aegean this year.
Aegean migrants and the smuggling route
The stretch of sea between Türkiye and the eastern Greek islands is one of the main routes for Aegean migrants trying to reach the European Union. Smugglers pack people into small speedboats and inflatable craft, often at night, and charge thousands of euros a person.
Arrivals on the Greek islands rose sharply in 2015, when more than a million people reached Europe across the Aegean and the central Mediterranean. A 2016 agreement between the European Union and Türkiye curbed the flow, though crossings have continued and climbed again at times. Samos and Lesbos have hosted large reception centers for new arrivals.
Such accidents recur in the autumn months, when wind and rough seas push overloaded boats into danger. Many crossings leave at night from points close to the Turkish shore to slip past patrols, which makes rescue harder once a boat is in trouble.
The crossings have turned deadly many times. Fatal journeys have multiplied along several migration routes this year, from the Aegean to a migrant boat disaster off Djibouti that killed scores of people bound for Yemen. The United Nations migration agency has recorded thousands of deaths along Mediterranean and Aegean routes over the past decade, and many of the dead are never identified.
A pledge of zero tolerance
Shipping Minister Vassilis Kikilias said the government would keep to what he called “zero tolerance for smugglers.” He has pressed for firmer action against the networks that arrange the crossings.
Each Greece migrant boat sinking reopens argument in the European Union over how to manage the route and over Greece’s treatment of people who reach its shores. Rights groups have accused the Greek authorities of pushing migrants back toward Türkiye at sea, which Athens denies.
The Greek government has expanded sea patrols and tightened penalties for people accused of piloting smuggling boats. Survivors identified as operators are routinely detained and prosecuted, as happened at both sites on Oct. 19. Athens says it enforces European law and rescues thousands of people at sea each year.
The latest deaths followed a sinking in September off the island of Gavdos, near Crete, in which one person died and 25 were reported missing.
