Five dead after a boat carrying migrants capsizes off the Greek island of Gavdos. 39 people were rescued in this incident. Another 40 people are still missing. The Greek coastguard said the boat sank in the early hours of Saturday (December 14). Qatari media Al-Jazeera reported this news.
According to the Coast Guard, they were rescued by a major rescue operation by ships and aircraft south of Gavdos.
In a separate incident that day, a Malta-flagged cargo ship rescued 47 migrants. They were rescued from a boat about 40 nautical miles (74 km) from Gavdos. At that time, another 88 people were rescued with the help of a tanker about 28 nautical miles (52 km) from the island.
According to preliminary information, Coast Guard officials believe the boats left Libya together.
In 2015-16, about 1 million migrants arrived in Greece from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Most of them chose the dangerous route of crossing the sea in passenger boats.
Such shipwrecks near the relatively isolated islands of Crete and Gavdos in the central Mediterranean have increased in the past year.
According to the Migration Ministry, the number of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Greece has increased by 25 percent this year. In Rhodes and the Southeast Aegean, the number increased by 30 percent.
