Greece, Europe Brief News – 18 people have died while dozens more are missed after two refugee boats crashed off Greece shores.
One boat sank off the island of Lesbos after encountering strong winds. There were 40 people on board, reportedly all women.
Earlier Wednesday, a sailboat carrying 95 refugees crashed into a rocky cliff amid strong winds off the island of Kythira. 18 People have died in the accident.
Rescue crews reported that 80 people had been rescued, but that two had been found dead by Thursday morning.
Videos circulating online showed the boat’s passengers desperately trying to climb the cliff wall after the crash.
Greece was the front line of Europe’s crisis in 2015 and 2016. A million refugees fleeing war and poverty from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria arrived, mainly via Turkey.
The number of refugee arrivals has fallen sharply since. But desperate people still try to enter the country by sea through its islands.
The coastguard says it has rescued about 1,500 people in the first eight months of the year, up from fewer than 600 last year.
In December, at least 30 people died in three separate refugee boat sinkings in the Aegean. Exact tallies are hard to keep as some bodies are never recovered or reach shore weeks later.
Greece has been accused by rights groups that many people have been illegally pushed back to Turkey without being allowed to lodge asylum claims.
