Nine migrants, including six minors and two women, died in two shipwrecks off the Greek islands of Samos and Lesbos, neighboring the Turkish coast, the Greek coast guard announced on Monday.
On the island of Samos, thirty-nine people were rescued and rescue operations continue in the north of this island in the eastern Aegean Sea, close to Turkey, from where many boats carrying migrants leave in search of the European Union, according to the same source.
“The sinking of Samos, with the loss of eight innocent lives, including six children, fills us with sadness and anger. The coast guard rescued 39 people, but the smugglers’ networks (…) will find us against them, with determination, in order to eliminate them,” reacted the Minister of Migration, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, on the social network
On the island of Lesvos, the body of a man was also found by the coast guard who rescued 26 people. Survivors of the sinking assure that there were no other passengers on the boat, according to a press release from the port authorities.
Rescue operations are made difficult by the violent winds blowing in the area. Greece has seen a 25% increase in the number of arrivals of people fleeing war and poverty since the start of the year and a 30% increase in flows to the Dodecanese archipelago and the southeast Aegean Sea. , the Ministry of Migration indicated at the beginning of November.
“The southeast of the Aegean Sea and the island of Rhodes are currently experiencing migratory pressure,” admitted Nikos Panagiotopoulos, assuring that this increase was not really linked to conflicts in the Middle East.
Shipwrecks are numerous and deadly. At the beginning of November, four migrants died off the coast of Rhodes and at the end of October, two migrants drowned near Samos, just a few days after the disappearance of four other people – including two infants – off the island of Kos (southeast).
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