The Greek Coast Guard announced today, Monday, that rescue teams found ten migrants in a rocky area on the island of Samos last night after retrieving the body of a migrant and rescuing 25 from a sinking boat. The Coast Guard added in a statement that a search and rescue operation was ongoing while authorities began investigating the incident.
In a separate incident, the Coast Guard found a speedboat carrying migrants off the coast of the island of Chios on Saturday. Greek authorities discovered 20 migrants, including two children, who had arrived on Chios. The islands of Samos and Chios are located in the eastern Aegean Sea near the Turkish coast.
Since 2015, Greece has been a preferred route for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia seeking to reach European Union countries, with nearly a million people arriving on its islands, mostly via Turkey. The numbers significantly decreased before rising again last year to 41,561 migrants by sea. About 10,854 migrants have reached Greece by sea since the beginning of this year.
