A child and a woman were found drowned off the Greek island of Leros on Sunday February 5, the Greek coast guard announced. They did not survive the sinking of an inflatable boat carrying migrants from the neighboring Turkish coasts. Forty-one people were rescued, including six children and two adults, who were taken to hospital in Leros, the coast guard said.
A rescue operation is still underway to possibly find other people. Three coastguard boats and a Super Puma helicopter are mobilized but the weather conditions with strong winds and rough seas make rescue operations complicated, the same sources said.
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The alert was given by a fisherman who found the body of the woman at sea, according to the Greek newspaper “Efsyn”.
According to testimonies collected by the coast guard and the police, the inflatable boat was carrying nearly 40 exiles, including children, women and people with reduced mobility.
The Minister of the Navy charges the “traffickers”
“Unfortunately, we have once again innocent victims who have lost their lives because of the criminal attitude of the traffickers”denounced in a press release the Minister of the Navy, Yannis Plakiotakis.
The human tragedies in the Aegean Sea are on the increase due to the risks taken by migrants who board makeshift boats on a stormy or even raging sea in winter. In December, a two-month-old baby was found dead after a shipwreck off the island of Lesbos.
Since 2014, 2,246 people fleeing wars and poverty have drowned in the eastern Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Source : Nouvelobs
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