A man has died after the boat he was on got into trouble off the Aegean island of Samos. Twenty-five people were rescued from the half-submerged dinghy.
The boat sank on Sunday morning (April 28) in the area northwest of Samos island.
It had reportedly left from the Turkish coast and was about half a nautical mile from Samos when it was spotted by a Greek coast guard vessel.
Twenty-five people were rescued, including two who were in the water.
A video released by the coast guard shows distressed children and adults – some wearing lifejackets and others with rubber tires around their waists – being rescued from the crowded inflatable boat.
After taking the survivors to Vatheos port on Samos, a Greek island close to the Turkish mainland coast, the Greek patrol then picked up another man, who was unconscious.
The man was taken to Samos General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No official information was released about his identity.
Another ten people who had been on the boat and had managed to make it to land were later found, the coast guard said in a press statement.
Greek authorities – with the aid of a Frontex helicopter – were continuing to search for further missing people from the shipwreck on Monday, April 29. The coast guard statement said winds of 6-7 on the Beaufort scale were blowing in the area, producing waves of around 4-5 meters.
Migrants located on Chios after sea chase
In a separate incident, the Greek authorities on Saturday chased a speedboat sailing off the island of Chios. After the boat reached the island, 20 migrants, including two children, were found and taken to the closed facility for asylum seekers on the island, according to a coast guard statement.
The statement said three people from among the group were arrested for illegal entry. One was also charged in connection with importing weapons.
At least 52 migrant deaths in Eastern Mediterranean this year
Around 10,850 migrants have reached Greece by sea so far this year, mostly from neighboring Turkey, according to the UNHCR. In March, there was a "significant decrease" in arrivals from Turkey, Greek authorities reported earlier this month.
The majority are nationals of Afghanistan, followed by Syrians.
At least 52 people, many of them children, died on the Eastern Mediterranean migratory route between the start of the year and April 10. Most of the deaths were by drowning.
On April 10, three children were found dead after the boat in which they had been traveling with more than a dozen other migrants was wrecked on Chios island.
The worst migrant boat disaster in the region was recorded on March 15: the bodies of 22 migrants were recovered by the Turkish coast guard after a boat sank off the coast of Turkey in the Eceabat district of Çanakkale.