At least 12 people have died this Saturday in the Ionian sea near the Greek island of Paxos, when it sank a boat with about 50 people on board, according to the testimonies of the rescued. This is one of the more serious episodes in the number of fatalities in months on the migration crisis in Greece.
As stated by a spokesman of the Coast Guard Greek to the agency Efe, the wreck took place at 09.15 (time of Greece, an hour less in Spain), to 13 nautical miles to the southwest of the island of Paxos, a place a little unusual for refugee arrivals to Greece, which typically take the route of the Eastern Aegean and get to islands such as Lesbos or Samos. The coast guard were notified of the event by one of the passengers through the emergency number for the European Union 112.
After receiving the notice was immediately launched a rescue operation which was attended by six boats of the coast guard, four boats were in the vicinity and three helicopters, one from the Navy and two of the Greek Air force. The weather conditions were good in the area where it occurred the wreck, which has facilitated the rescue operation, according to the coast guard.
At the last hour of the afternoon had been rescued 21 survivors, three of whom were taken to hospital of the city of Préveza and recovered three dead bodies.
there is Still no information about the route of the boat or what was their destination, nor about the ages, backgrounds or gender of the deceased. Just know, according to announced the Ministry of Health of Greece, that the three persons were transferred to the hospital of Préveza are two men, between 45 and 50 years, and a woman of about 25 years.
Greece was a focus of the crisis european migration in 2015 and 2016, when over a million people came to the country, mainly from the middle East fleeing the war. The camps and reception centres on the islands facing Turkey are severely overpopulated.
In 2019, almost 74.500 migrants and refugees arrived in Greece, mostly by sea, according to data from the High Commissioner of United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR).Thousands of migrants have died in recent years in the Mediterranean, rendered the sea route the world’s most dangerous.
last year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) counted 1.283 known dead in the Mediterranean. The number of migrants who have perished on that route in the past five years is estimated at 19.164.
