Dozens of people are feared to have died off the coast of Greece after their migrant boat sank while attempting to make the perilous crossing from Turkey.
Efforts by Greece’s navy and air force to rescue up to 50 people who went down with the vessel in stormy waters off Rhodes had shown no signs of progress by late Wednesday, coast guard officials said.
“There were around 80 people on board according to the 29 men who were rescued in the area at around 5am,” a coast guard official said. “Up to 50 people are still missing.”
The boat, which was en route to Italy from Antalya in southern Turkey – an increasingly popular passage for those attempting to get to Europe – went down 38 nautical miles south of Rhodes in seas whipped by gale-force winds. Coast guard officials described the shipwreck as being in international waters.
The Greek shipping minister, Ioannis Plakiotakis, said the Hellenic navy, air force, coast guard patrol boats, as well as commercial ships sailing in the southern Aegean at the time, had all joined the search and rescue operation. As of 5am a Super Puma helicopter had scoured the seas but Nikos Kokalas, the coast guard’s spokesperson, said efforts had been severely hampered by winds of up to 30 mph.
“Protecting human life is a daily concern and our absolute priority,” Plakiotakis said in a statement. “In the last two years, in 145 search and rescue operations, more than 6,000 people have been saved.”
The centre right government of prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has faced heavy criticism for forcibly expelling asylum seekers from Greek territory in violation of the Geneva conventions.
Although Greek authorities have vehemently denied conducting pushbacks, a growing mass of evidence has shown the practice taking place at the EU border state’s land and sea frontiers. The Athens administration has described its migrant policies as being “tough but fair.”
Turkey has also been criticised for allowing people to leave its shores despite reaching a multi-billion euro deal in March 2016 with the EU to stop the flows in return for EU aid.
Approximately 3.7 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The influx of Europe-bound migrants to Greece has dropped dramatically over the past year but this week’s crossing is a reminder of the lengths people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are willing to endure to find refuge in the west.