ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A search and rescue operation off the coast of the eastern Greek island of Samos recovered the bodies of two people reported missing overnight after a boat carrying 24 migrants ran into trouble in rough weather, the coast guard said Monday.
The sinking is the latest deadly accident involving migrants trying to make their way into the European Union using the sea route either from the nearby Turkish coast or across the Mediterranean from North Africa.
Authorities said they received a distress call from the passengers on the vessel and a coast guard patrol boat located the vessel, semi-submerged, north of Samos. Twenty-two people were rescued, and survivors alerted the coast guard to the two missing passengers.
The bodies of the missing — a man and a woman — were recovered in the early hours of Monday, the coast guard said.
In another three incidents Sunday, more than 160 migrants reached Greece's eastern Aegean Sea islands in small boats from Turkey, according to the coast guard.
Last week, two women and two children died off the eastern Greek island of Kos when a smuggling boat crossing from nearby Turkey capsized. A further 27 people were rescued.
In a separate incident a few days later, one man died, two people were reported missing and 97 were rescued by a passing cargo ship in the Mediterranean south of Greece’s southernmost island of Gavdos. Survivors told authorities they had paid between 7,000 and 10,000 euros each for the passage from the northern Libyan port of Tobruk to Greece.
Greece lies on a popular route into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with tens of thousands heading to Greek islands, usually in smuggling boats from the nearby Turkish coast, or making the longer and more treacherous journey across the Mediterranean from North Africa.
More than 44,000 migrants were registered as having arrived in Greece by mid-October, with the vast majority arriving by sea, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
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