CHAVIREMENT A total of 104 people were rescued, four of whom are in hospital in Kalamata, a town near the south of the Peloponnese.
A boat carrying “hundreds” of migrants, according to a source in the Greek Ministry of Migration, capsized 47 nautical miles off the Greek coast in international waters. At least 59 people, whose nationalities were not given, drowned in the wreck off the Peloponnese peninsula on Tuesday night.
According to a new report from the coastguard, 104 people were rescued during the vast rescue operation which began early on Wednesday morning, four of whom are in hospital in Kalamata, in south-western Greece. The Greek coastguard pointed out that none of the people were wearing life jackets at the time of the sinking. In addition to port police patrol boats, a Greek navy frigate, an air force plane and helicopter, and six boats operating in the area took part in the rescue operation.
The migrants on board “refused all help”.
The boat had been spotted for the first time on Tuesday afternoon by a plane from Frontex, the European border surveillance agency, but the migrants on board “refused all help”, the Greek port authorities had stressed in an earlier press release. According to initial information from the authorities, the boat carrying the migrants had set sail from Libya bound for Italy.