Greece initiates rescue operation for boat with hundreds of people

Off the coast of the southern Greek island of Crete, there is a rescue operation going on because a boat that is thought to be carrying hundreds of asylum seekers lost control and was drifting in rough seas.

The coastguard said on Tuesday that people on the boat had called an emergency number to alert authorities during the night.

The passengers told the coast guard that there were up to 500 people on board the ship, but the number could not be confirmed right away.

“The distress call said there are 400-500 people on board,” a coastguard spokeswoman told the AFP news agency. She also said that the operation was made harder by winds that were almost gale-force.

She added, “They can see the boat, it’s drifting, and there are a lot of people on board.”

A Greek navy frigate, two Italian fishing boats, a tanker, and two cargo ships all took part in the rescue operation. However, the coastguard said that because of the strong winds and rough seas, none of the passengers could be moved from the sinking ship by morning. No one knew right away where the boat with the asylum seekers had left from, where it was going, or who was on board.

Leaving war and poverty

Tens of thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa who are fleeing war and poverty try to get into the European Union every year by taking dangerous sea trips. Most of them try to get to Greece from Turkey or take a longer route to Italy.

Greek officials say that because the Greek coastguard and the EU border agency Frontex are patrolling the Aegean Sea more, people smugglers are taking the longer and more dangerous route south of Crete.

“Eighty percent of flows from Turkey go straight to Italy,” Notis Mitarachi, the minister in charge of migration, said last week on Skai TV.