On Wednesday night, a migrant boat sank off the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving at least 17 migrants dead and 15 more missings.
The Greek coastguard reported that a dinghy carrying forty persons left the Turkish coast in extremely heavy winds.
Dozens more migrants were rescued elsewhere in Greece when their boat struck rocks on the southern island of Kythira.
A Coastguard video showed rescuers pulling a group of individuals from beneath a precipice to safety.
Both vessels sank within hours of each other on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, hundreds of kilometers apart yet only hours apart in time.
At the top of the cliff face in Kythira, an island in the Peloponnese area of southern Greece, rescue workers were joined by volunteers.
The migrant boat capsized near the island’s eastern harbor at Diakofti in winds of up to 70 kilometers per hour (45 miles per hour), and according to Greek sources, one of those on board sounded the alert when the vessel got into difficulty.
Martha Stathaki, a local homeowner, told the Associated Press news agency, “We could see the boat crashing into the cliffs and people crawling up the rocks in an attempt to save themselves.”
Eighty of the ninety-five passengers were reportedly rescued off the coast of Kythira. According to Greek reports, they originated in Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq and included 55 men and 18 children.
Stratos Harhalakis, the mayor of Kythira, stated that the boat had arrived at the worst conceivable location on the island due to gale-force winds that pushed it onto perilous cliffs. He recalled witnessing five people drown as they were whisked away by the current. He stated that their small boat was large enough for 15 to 20 persons, as opposed to nearly 100.
Meanwhile, on Lesbos, authorities have retrieved the dead of 16 young women of African descent and a little kid whose boat capsized near Thermi. Ten women were rescued and transported to the Mytilini hospital.
As the coast guard sought survivors, Lesbos was also struck by strong winds.
Local officials said that the vessel had left the Turkish port of Ayvali, and Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi demanded that Turkey take “urgent measures” to halt unauthorized migrant crossings under stormy conditions. “Many lives have already been lost in the Aegean today; people are drowning in unseaworthy vessels,” he tweeted.
While Lesbos is close to the coast of western Turkey, Kythira is located approximately 400 kilometers (250 kilometers) west of Turkey’s shoreline in the Aegean Sea and is on what has become known as the smugglers’ “Calabrian route,” named after their destination in southern Italy.
Last month, two migrant boats carrying nearly 100 individuals, primarily from Afghanistan, landed on Kythira. The number of crossings from Turkey to the Italian coast that circumvents Greece is increasing.
