Collision off Lesbos
In the early hours of Monday, 19 October, a fast boat carrying migrants collided with the side of a Greek coast guard vessel off the island of Lesbos. Six people died in the crash: one man, four women and an infant, according to the coast guard. Eight others were rescued, including two children, and the injured were taken to hospital for treatment.
Some reports described the Greek vessel as a port police boat, while the coast guard and the government referred to a coast guard ship. The coast guard said a 37-year-old Turkish man was detained on suspicion of people smuggling, and the circumstances of the collision are being investigated.
Vassilis Kikilias, Greece's minister of Navigation and Island Policy, said the evidence gathered so far showed that the smugglers' fast boat had struck a Greek coast guard vessel with its bow. He blamed the deaths on what he called the criminal activities of modern-day people traffickers, and said the incident was under investigation.
Capsizing off Samos
A second boat sank at dawn on Monday about 3.7 nautical miles off the Greek island of Samos. Six people were recovered dead, five men and one woman, and 14 people survived. Among the survivors was a suspected trafficker of Iranian nationality, a coast guard official said.
With the Lesbos incident, the two accidents left twelve people dead. The Samos boat was reported to have capsized before sinking, and the rescue of the 14 survivors was carried out in the same early hours.
- Fast boat collides with a Greek coast guard vessel off Lesbos; six dead, eight rescued
- Migrant boat sinks about 3.7 nautical miles off Samos; six recovered dead, 14 survive
Official reaction and investigation
Kikilias expressed regret over what he called a tragedy off Lesbos and set out the government position on the smugglers in a message posted on social media.
Our position is non-negotiable. Zero tolerance for people smugglers, those ruthless criminals who lead desperate people, families and innocent children to their deaths.
Konstantinos Moutzouris, governor of the North Aegean region, said the tragedies on Lesbos and Samos, with twelve dead including a child, caused deep grief and anger. He offered condolences to the victims and condemned the smugglers, who he said play with human lives for profit, and called for their crimes to be treated with the utmost severity.
Deadly crossings in the Aegean
ANSA-AFP notes that fatal accidents involving migrant boats are frequent on routes heading to Europe through the northern and eastern Aegean islands, which lie near Turkey's western coast, or via Crete in the south. Many of the people on these routes lose their lives in the attempt.
In September, one person died and 25 were reported missing after a migrant boat sank off the Greek island of Gavdos, near Crete. The Monday accidents add to a run of deadly incidents on the same crossings, and the cause of both sinkings remains under review by the authorities.