News24 | Twelve migrants, including infant, drown as boats capsize off Greek islands

A Greek patrol ship of the Hellenic Navy is patrolling the Aegean Sea water borders between Greece and Turkey, where migrants often cross.

Nicolas Economou /NurPhoto /NurPhoto via AFP

• Authorities say twelve migrants died on 19 October when their boats capsized off the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos in the northeastern Aegean Sea, in two separate incidents that occurred as the coast guard gave chase.
• For years, Greece has been the gateway to Europe for migrants coming from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
• Greece’s shipping minister Vassilis Kikilias, said they are investigating the exact circumstances surrounding the accident in Lesbos.

Twelve migrants drowned in two separate incidents off the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos ‌in the northeastern Aegean Sea on Monday, after ⁠their boats capsized as the coast guard chased them, authorities ⁠said.

Five men and one woman died after a speedboat carrying migrants from Turkey made a sudden manoeuvre and overturned roughly four nautical miles north of Samos, the Greek ‌coast guard said.

Fourteen men survived, and a search-and-rescue operation was underway. Authorities arrested one of the survivors, an Iranian national, on suspicion of migrant smuggling.

Earlier, ‌four men, one woman and an infant died when their boat collided with a Greek coast guard vessel and overturned off the area of Agrilia in Lesbos. Eight survivors were taken to hospital.

Authorities arrested a 37-year-old Turkish ‌national who was among ⁠the eight survivors and identified him as the suspected smuggler and operator of the boat.

READ | 139 migrants dead, 84 missing after boat capsizes on Djibouti–Yemen route - UN

The government vowed "zero tolerance" towards migrant smugglers, whom it blamed for the deaths.

On the incident off Lesbos, Greece's shipping minister Vassilis Kikilias said evidence so far indicated the speedboat struck the left side of a coast guard vessel with its bow, adding that the exact circumstances were under investigation.

"Our position is non-negotiable: zero tolerance for smugglers," ⁠he said in a post on X.

Greece, for years a favoured gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, was at the front line of ⁠Europe's migration crisis in 2015-2016 and nearly 1 million people landed on its islands, mainly from Turkey.

It has since toughened its stance and has been accused by human rights groups of forcibly ⁠returning migrants and asylum-seekers on its sea and land borders, a ‌practice it denies, saying ‌its coast guard acts with full respect for human lives and rights.