A minimum of eight migrants drown in shipwreck off Greek island of Samos | Migration Information

Six youngsters died in the catastrophe, whereas the police discovered 36 survivors alive on Samos and three individuals have been rescued.

Greece’s coast guard has discovered the bodies of eight migrants, together with six youngsters, who drowned off the island of Samos, authorities stated, within the second migrant shipwreck in the Aegean Sea this month.

Greek police discovered an additional 36 individuals alive within the northern part of Samos on Monday, whereas three individuals, trapped in a rocky space of the island, have been rescued by Coast Guard officers, the Coast Guard stated.

A Greek Coast Guard official stated authorities had been alerted in regards to the incident by a nongovernmental organization and estimated that about 50 individuals had been on board the vessel.

It was not instantly clear whether or not anybody else was nonetheless lacking. The nationalities of the individuals on the boat weren’t recognized.

In a separate incident on the island of Lesbos, an aged man died as a gaggle of 27 migrants made landfall in a small boat, the coast guard stated.

Greece, within the southeast nook of the European Union, has long been a favored gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Center East, Africa, and Asia.

Multiple million crossed from Turkey to Greece’s outlying Japanese islands in 2015-2016. Many have drowned while attempting the perilous journey in flimsy boats.

The variety of arrivals later dropped earlier than surging once more final 12 months.

The United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) discovered that about 54,000 migrants reached Greece in 2024, the second largest quantity in southern Europe behind Italy. The overwhelming majority of individuals arrived by sea.

Nevertheless, many individuals have died while making the damaging journey on account of tough seas and through the usage of flimsy boats.

Earlier in November, 4 individuals died in an analogous shipwreck close to the island of Rhodes. In late October, two individuals additionally died in a shipwreck off Samos.

Greek Transport Minister Christos Stylianides stated Greece’s precedence was to finish human trafficking networks that have been placing earnings above the lives of harmless individuals.

“I need to specific my deep sorrow for the lack of eight individuals, amongst them six younger youngsters,” he stated in a press release on Monday.

“We are going to deal with the nice drawback of unlawful immigration which has exceeded the bounds of endurance of the European Union.”