Survivors inform authorities the our bodies of those that died have been thrown overboard by folks smugglers.
Printed On 28 Mar 2026
Not less than 22 migrants died off the coast of Greece after six days at sea in a rubber boat, rekindling consideration on the dangers folks take to cross to Europe regardless of tighter restrictions.
Citing survivors’ accounts and a press release from the coastguard, 22 folks died and their our bodies have been thrown into the ocean.
Advisable Tales
record of three objectsfinish of record
Two survivors have been taken to hospital in Heraklion on Crete, the coastguard mentioned.
Primarily based on survivor statements, the coastguard mentioned the boat left Tobruk, a port metropolis in jap Libya, on March 21 sure for Greece, the gateway for a lot of migrants chasing asylum within the European Union.
“In the course of the journey, the passengers misplaced their bearings and remained at sea for six days with out meals or water,” the coastguard mentioned.
The our bodies of those that died “have been thrown into the ocean on the orders of one of many smugglers”, it added.
Greek authorities arrested two South Sudanese males, aged 19 and 22, believed to be the folks smugglers.
In the meantime, the Greek coastguard mentioned 26 folks, together with a girl and a minor, have been rescued by a Frontex European Union Company vessel off the island of Crete.
1000’s of individuals try the perilous crossing from Libya to Europe over the Mediterranean every year.
Libya has grow to be a transit route for folks fleeing battle and poverty to Europe because the fall in 2011 of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
In line with the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), greater than 16,770 folks searching for asylum in Europe arrived in Crete in 2025. Not less than 107 folks have died or gone lacking in Greek waters throughout the identical interval.
Confronted with the surge in arrivals, the Greek authorities suspended the processing of asylum purposes for 3 months in mid-2025, significantly for these arriving from Libya.
Nonetheless, many persist in taking the damaging journey.
On February 9, the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM) reported some 53 migrants, together with two infants, have been useless or lacking after a rubber boat carrying 55 folks capsized off the coast of Zuwara metropolis in Libya.
In January, the IOM mentioned not less than 375 migrants have been reported useless or lacking due to excessive climate, with a whole bunch extra deaths believed unrecorded.
