- Witnesses say many remain missing as search operations continued.
- Rescued migrants transferred to the island of Crete: coast guard.
- Italian frigate, search area for naval aircraft after the ship tragedy.
At least five migrants drowned after their wooden boat capsized off the southern Greek island of Gavdos, the coast guard said on Saturday, and witnesses said many remained missing as search operations continued.
So far, 39 men, most of them from Pakistan, have been rescued by cargo ships sailing in the area. They were taken to the island of Crete, the coast guard said, adding that the number of missing had not yet been confirmed.
Coast guard ships, merchant vessels, an Italian frigate and naval aircraft have been searching the area since Greek authorities were alerted to the incident on Friday night.
In separate incidents on Saturday, a Maltese-flagged cargo ship rescued 47 migrants from a ship sailing about 40 nautical miles off Gavdos, while a tanker rescued another 88 migrants about 28 nautical miles from the small island in southern Greece.
According to initial information, the coast guard believes that the ships left Libya together.
Greece was a favorite gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2015-2016, when almost a million people landed on its islands, mainly in inflatable boats.
Incidents with migrant boats and shipwrecks off Crete and its small neighbor Gavdos, which are relatively isolated in the central Mediterranean, have increased over the past year.
In 2023, hundreds of migrants drowned when an overcrowded boat capsized and sank in international waters off the coastal town of Pylos in southwestern Greece. It was one of the deadliest ship disasters ever to occur in the Mediterranean Sea.
