(ATHENS) A new body was found Tuesday after the shipwrecks last week in the Aegean Sea in Greece of two boats with migrants on board, announced the Greek coastguard, bringing the death toll to at least 30 dead.
Posted at 2:19 p.m.
According to Saturday’s report, the number of victims was 29.
The body of a woman was recovered on Tuesday off the island of Kythera, in the south of the Peloponnese peninsula, where a sailboat carrying 95 migrants ran aground overnight from Wednesday to last Thursday amid strong winds were blowing in this area.
Eighty people were saved during this shipwreck. One of them, suspected of being a smuggler, was arrested on Saturday.
In addition, at least 18 people, mostly women, had died in another shipwreck off the island of Lesbos, in the northeast Aegean, in the eastern Mediterranean, at dawn last Thursday.
The boat was carrying 40 Somalis, of whom only ten were wearing life jackets, according to Greek authorities.
In the first eight months of the year, 1,500 people were rescued by the coastguard, some 600 more than last year.
Often accused of illegal refoulement of migrants and refugees from neighboring Turkey, Athens frequently blames Ankara for shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea, which separates the two countries.
“Pressure must be put on Turkey at EU level to prevent illegal departures from Turkey, otherwise the loss of life will continue,” Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi told the MED5 conference on Saturday. Paphos (Cyprus), during a meeting of the five Mediterranean countries on the front line for the reception of migrants (Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Malta and Italy).