A wooden boat packed with migrants met a fatal end south of Crete early Saturday, capsizing and sending five to their deaths while 20 remain missing. The site lies 27 km from the coastal hamlet of Kala Limena.
The Greek Coast Guard detailed how the incident sparked during a rescue. Commercial vessels arrived, lowering ladders. Migrants rushing to board destabilized the craft, leading to its swift inversion.
A Panamanian cargo ship rescued 20, as Coast Guard and Frontex ships fished out three bodies, later finding two more adrift. Rescued migrants estimated 50 total passengers, hinting at worse outcomes ahead.
Massive search mobilization includes ships, helicopters, and planes scanning the waves. Crete’s southern seas claim lives regularly in this migration corridor.
Over the last decade, Greece absorbed over a million undocumented entrants into the EU, with hundreds lost at sea and many along the Evros frontier with Turkey. Early this month, authorities retrieved two migrant corpses from the riverbanks, underscoring unrelenting dangers.
As operations continue, global observers renew pleas for humanitarian corridors and bolstered patrols to stem these avoidable deaths.