One person drowned when a small boat carrying migrants over from the nearby Turkish coast capsized just off the eastern Aegean Sea island of Samos tipping its occupants into the sea, authorities said Tuesday.
A Coast Guard statement said a total 35 people were rescued in a large operation by air, sea and land early Monday, after authorities were notified of the accident off a rocky shore in western Samos’ Isidoros Bay.
Fourteen of the rescued migrants – including a woman and a child – had managed to clamber onto the rocks, while another 21 were in the sea. The body of a 23-year-old man was recovered by a diver.
The nationalities of the migrants were not made public. All are believed to have paid a smuggling ring to be ferried over from Turkey.
Thousands of people enter Greece illegally every year by land and sea. Most risk the lengthy Mediterranean Sea crossing in small boats from eastern Libya to the southern island of Crete.
