The Greek coast guard rescued a group of 48 migrants on Thursday (April 20) after their sailboat ran aground and partially sank at Neo Itilo on the Peloponnese peninsula. After the boat had suffered shipwreck, the survivors called for help, according to the Greek coast guard.

One migrant was reported to have died during the journey. A doctor from a coastal town near the remote spot where the boat crashed into rocks told the broadcaster ERT that the deceased man had a pre-existing illness.

Among the group were 16 minors, including four infants. Four children and three women were taken to Laconia hospital for observation, the coast guard later said.

The rest of the migrants were to be taken to Gytheio, a port town about 25 kilometers away. According to local media reports, most of the people on the ill-fated boat came from Afghanistan.

Greek arrivals up

Afghanistan is currently the second most common nationality of migrants arriving in Greece after Palestinians, according to United Nations monitoring data.

UN figures published on April 16 show that at least 3,587 migrants have arrived in Greece by sea from Turkey since the beginning of this year.

In March, Greek authorities announced a significant increase in the number of migrant arrivals in the first two months of 2023 -- compared with the same period last year. This was despite an overall drop in the number of asylum seekers in Greece, which is less than half of what it was a year ago, according to the migration ministry.

Cyprus to 'limit migration flow'

Authorities in Cyprus also reported on Thursday that dozens of migrants had arrived undetected in the west of the island. Police said they believed that at least 25 people had arrived, based on the number of life jackets found on the shore.

The news portal Sigmalive published photos of abandoned orange life jackets among rocks but according to the report, it was not clear when they had been left there.

The Cyprus Mail, an English-language news site, reported Thursday that the government intended to expand migrant reception centers and speed up the processing of asylum applications to cope with the influx. It will also increase voluntary returns of migrants to 1,000 a month, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou told the Cyprus news agency.

Currently, there is a backlog of 30,000 asylum applications yet to be processed, he said.

The minister added that for the past six years, Cyprus has received the highest number of asylum seekers relative to the population of all EU member states.

The IOM's data tool on migration flows showed 1,633 irregular arrivals in the first two months of 2023, notably with none of them marked as arriving by sea. The vast majority of migrants come to Cyprus by irregular border crossings on foot from the north of the island, which is controlled by Turkey.

This is why the arrivals are technically considered "land arrivals" -- even though the earlier arrivals to the Turkish part of the island are usually by air or sometimes by sea.

Watch: Number of asylum seekers in Cyprus doubles

More dangerous sea routes

With increased patrols and deterrence measures around the Greek Aegean islands and Cyprus in recent years, more migrants have lately been attempting to use the longer sea route from the Turkish west coast all the way to southern Italy -- an even more dangerous journey than most irregular migrant sea crossings.

As of mid-March 2023, at least 36 migrants were known to have died or gone missing in the eastern Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of the year, according to IOM.

This only reflects the documented number of deaths; because of problems gathering accurate data, the agency says the actual number is likely to be much higher.

Also read: 'Many missing' after another migrant shipwreck in Aegean Sea

With dpa, AP