22 dead, dozens missing after two migrant ships sink off Greece

KYTHIRA, Greece —  Bodies floated amid splintered wreckage in wind-tossed waters off a Greek island Thursday as the death toll from the separate sinkings of two migrant smuggling boats rose to 22, with about a dozen still missing.

The vessels went down hundreds of miles apart, in one case prompting a dramatic overnight rescue effort as island residents and firefighters pulled shipwrecked migrants to safety up steep cliffs.

The shipwrecks further stoked tension between neighbors Greece and Turkey, which are locked in a heated dispute over maritime boundaries and migration. Both vessels are believed to have left from Turkey.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis voiced “deep sorrow for the tragic loss of life” and praised rescuers’ “heroic” efforts.

“This is a time to really cooperate much more substantially in order to avoid these types of incidents occurring in the future and to completely eradicate the smugglers who prey upon innocent people” trying to reach Europe in unseaworthy boats, Mitsotakis added.

The coast guard on Greece’s eastern island of Lesbos said the bodies of 16 young African women, a man and a boy were recovered after a dinghy carrying about 40 people sank. Coast guard officials said 25 people were rescued by late Thursday.

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“The women who were rescued were in a full state of panic so we are still trying to work out what happened,” coast guard spokesman Nikos Kokkalas told state television.

The second rescue effort was launched several hundred miles to the southwest, off the island of Kythira, where an Italy-bound sailboat struck rocks and sank. The bodies of at least four migrants were seen floating next to debris from the yacht under the cliffs. The deaths would be officially recorded when the bodies were recovered, officials said, adding that 80 people, from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, had been rescued while a search continues for as many as 11 still believed to be missing.

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“The waves was too much high, about 6 meters [20 feet],” said Abdul Ghafar Amur, a Afghan survivor of the wreck. “We tried to save our lives, but most of our friends, they have died.”

He said the people on the yacht had been at sea for two days when the vessel sank.

With gale-force winds overnight on Kythira, survivors clinging to ropes were pulled to safety up steep cliffs as others were buffeted by waves as they waited their turn on rocks at the bottom.

“All the residents here went down to the harbor to try and help,” resident Martha Stathaki told the Associated Press.

“We could see the boat smashing against the rocks and people climbing up those rocks to try and save themselves. It was an unbelievable sight.”

Amur said he paid smugglers $9,000 to be transported from Turkey to Italy, which matched accounts by other survivors. The fate of the yacht’s captain was unknown, though some survivors said he was lost during the wreck.

Kythira is some 250 miles west of Turkey and on a route often used by smugglers to bypass Greece and head directly to Italy.

A volatile dispute is taking place between Greece and Turkey over the safety of migrants at sea, with Athens accusing its neighbor of failing to stop smugglers active on its shoreline and even using migrants to apply political pressure on the European Union.

Most migrants reaching Greece travel from nearby Turkey, but smugglers have changed routes — often taking greater risks — in recent months in an effort to avoid heavily patrolled waters around Greek islands near the Turkish coastline.

“Once again, Turkey’s tolerance of gangs of ruthless traffickers has cost human lives,” Greek Shipping Minister Yannis Plakiotakis said. “As long as the Turkish coast guard does not prevent their activities, the traffickers cram unfortunate people, without safety measures, into boats that cannot withstand the weather conditions, putting their lives in mortal danger.”

Turkey denies the allegations and has publicly accused Greece of carrying out reckless summary deportations, known as pushbacks.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Greece of “turning the Aegean Sea into a graveyard.”