SULAIMANI (ESTA) — An asylum-seekers boat sank in the southeast waters of Greek on Wednesday, the boat reportedly carried 60-80 people and no bodies have been found so far.
The Associated Press bureau chief in Southeast Europe on Wednesday said on her Twitter account that a boat with 60-80 asylum-seekers sank in Karpathos Island in the southeast waters of Greek.
“So far 29 people rescued, search and rescue operation underway,” She said.
According to information Esta Media Network has obtained, Kurdish and Iraqi, as well as Afghan nationality, were included in the boat. And it was sailed from Turkey’s Antalya coasts to the Greek waters in order to reach Europe’s heartland.
The most common sea route for asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa has been from Turkey to nearby Greek islands.
Greek is one of the main routes into the European Union for migrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, though the flow has tapered off since 2015-2016 when more than a million people traversed the country to other EU states.
Many migrants are still skirting the Greek islands and attempting to take the much longer, and more dangerous, route directly to Italy.