Hundreds of people were rescued from a capsized boat south of the island of Crete on Friday; many more are missing, some are expected to be dead.
Greek authorities said they rescued 340 people and found nine bodies. At 7:20 AM on Friday, a merchant ship reported the migrant ship had capsized. There is an ongoing effort to find any other people who may have been on the boat.
This is the latest in the recent installments of refugee-related tragedies in the Mediterranean. The International Organization for Migration reported on Tuesday that more than 1,000 migrants possibly died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe over a recent eight-day period.
The boat is believed to have left from Egypt and Greek officials say the boat capsized in international waters under Egypt’s authority. In a statement released by the Italian Coast Guard, it stated that the Egyptian authorities were alerted of the capsizing on Thursday, but the Egyptians did not initiate a rescue operation, stating the area was out of jurisdiction. Italy alerted Greece of the crisis and Greece promptly deployed boats and Coast Guard helicopters to lead a rescue operation.
“The number of people in distress could be counted in the hundreds,” a Greek coastguard spokeswoman said. “People are in the water, boats crossing the area have thrown lifebuoys and are moving to save the migrants.”
