Shipwreck in Kythira: The operator of the sailboat abandoned them – Investigations continue in Lesvos

The searches are intensive again, with the first light of day, to locate the missing immigrants in Kythira and Lesvos.

Kythera

In Kythera, 10 people are missing after the wreck of the sailboat that illegally transported them to Italy along with 80 other people who were rescued.

Of the 80 rescued, 55 are men, seven women and 18 children. The 79 rescued are from Afghanistan and one Syrian. Five bodies of EMAK men were found in a ravine and efforts are being made to retrieve them. In the area, winds blow with an intensity of up to 9 Beaufort.

It is noted that some of the migrants saw the boat’s operator abandon them and fall into the sea, and then they understood that the shipwreck was inevitable.

On Thursday afternoon, the head of the Fire Brigade gave an order so that an echelon of the 1st EMAK was transferred to Kythira with a Super Puma helicopter in order to assist in the operation.

Lesbos

Rescue searches have been intensive since the morning in Lesbos as well. At least 18 people – 16 young women of African descent, a boy and a man – have died in the Proboscis sea area, east of Lesvos, after a boat carrying an estimated 40 people sank.

The ten rescued women are all young women of African descent who were taken to the Mytilini Hospital, where they were given first aid. It is noted that three of them were trapped in a rocky, steep area.

While the bodies are being taken to the morgue, the Coast Guard, the Greek Police, the Fire Brigade and the Army with the help of an Air Force Super Puma helicopter are operating in the area in search of missing persons. In fact, as it became known at noon on Thursday, ELAS’ ground echelon located 15 foreigners, bringing the total number of those rescued to 25.

Message from Mitsotakis

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis sent a message yesterday from Prague to deal with the scourge of smugglers, noting that “the time has come to really cooperate and in a much more substantial way, in order to avoid the repetition of such incidents in the future and to completely neutralize the smugglers who take advantage of innocent people, desperate people, who are trying to reach the European continent in boats that are clearly not seaworthy.”

An appeal to Ankara to take immediate measures to prevent all irregular departures from Turkey, especially when difficult weather conditions prevail in the Aegean, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum Notis Mitarakis addressed, on the occasion of the shipwrecks in Lesbos and Kythira with many dead and missing.

Speaking to SKAI 100.3, the minister said that there is information from the coast guard that even now that there are bad conditions in the Aegean, attempts are being made to launch boats from the Turkish coast.

For his part, the government representative Yannis Oikonomou spoke of the huge responsibilities of the Turkish authorities, noting that “as long as Turkey does not apply the laws, as long as it turns its back on traffickers, as long as it does not honor the agreements it has signed, unfortunately we will be faced with such tragedies”.

“Smugglers are changing routes”

The two fatal shipwrecks with refugee boats in Lesvos and Kythira were yesterday one of the top news in the online editions of the newspapers. Die Welt observes that “many migrants are trying to reach Greece from neighboring Turkey. However, in recent months traffickers prefer different routes to avoid the strictly monitored sea areas around the Greek islands and near the Turkish coast. “Kythera is located approximately 400 kilometers west of Turkey, on a route that traffickers often use to bypass Greece, heading for Italy.”

“Two serious shipwrecks with refugee boats” is the headline of Spiegel Online, which notes that “in recent months traffickers have been changing routes to avoid strict surveillance in the Aegean waters, near the Turkish coast. More and more refugees are trying to reach southern Greece. Kythera, for example, where one of the two shipwrecks occurred, is about 400 kilometers west of Turkey and on a route that traffickers have increasingly used in recent times. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that since the beginning of the year, the number of dead and missing in the Mediterranean refugee route exceeds 1,100, of which 900 in the central Mediterranean.

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