Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Greece: 1 More Body Found from Migrant Sailboat Sinking


Wed 16 Nov 2022 | 01:16 PM
By Ahmad El-Assasy

The number of verified fatalities has risen to 29 according to Greek authorities following the shipwreck earlier this month of an overloaded migrant smuggling boat in the western Aegean Sea. 27 more persons are still unaccounted for.

The sailing boat that sank on November 1 had 68 people on board when it ran into trouble in very rough seas in a dangerous strait between two islands east of the Greek capital. Twelve men from Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran were among the survivors. Early on Wednesday, the coast guard reported that a man's body had just been discovered in the water south of the island of Evia.

Two of the survivors, who according to the authorities were recognised as being the sailing boat's captain and crew, were later detained on suspicion of smuggling migrants.

It was the most recent in a string of fatal shipwrecks involving migrants in Greek waters in recent months that left dozens of people dead or missing.

Each year, tens of thousands of people risk their lives at sea in an attempt to enter the European Union as they flee war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The majority of these people are trying to get to Greece or Italy.