At least five migrants drowned when a wooden boat carrying migrants, including many from Pakistan, capsized off the southern Greek island of Gavdos, the coastguard reported on Saturday. Witnesses stated that many others are still missing, and search operations continue.
So far, 39 men—most of them Pakistani nationals—have been rescued by cargo vessels operating in the area. They were transferred to the island of Crete, though the number of missing individuals remains unconfirmed, the coastguard added.
Greek authorities were alerted to the incident on Friday night, prompting a search operation involving coastguard boats, merchant ships, an Italian frigate, and naval aircraft. In separate incidents on Saturday, a Malta-flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants around 40 nautical miles off Gavdos, while a tanker rescued another 88 migrants about 28 nautical miles from the island.
Initial reports suggest that the boats may have departed together from Libya.
Greece has long been a key entry point to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. This was particularly true in 2015-2016, when nearly a million people arrived on Greek islands, mostly in inflatable dinghies.
Over the past year, incidents involving migrant boats and shipwrecks off Crete and nearby Gavdos have been on the rise. One of the most devastating tragedies occurred in 2023 when an overcrowded vessel capsized off the Greek town of Pylos, killing hundreds of migrants in one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest disasters.
