ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Rescuers searched the Mediterranean Sea near Greece’s southernmost island Thursday for two people reported missing when a boat carrying 100 migrants sank the previous day, Greece’s Coast Guard said.
The body of one man was recovered from the sea Wednesday, while 97 people were rescued by a passing Turkish-flagged cargo ship. The Coast Guard said Thursday that the survivors — 85 men, two women and 10 minors — were taken to the island of Crete, where one woman was hospitalized.
Greek authorities said they arrested two of the survivors, men aged 26 and 24, as suspected smugglers. According to the Coast Guard, survivors said they set out for Greece from Tobruk in Libya last Sunday, and that they had paid between 7,000 euros and 10,000 euros each. The reasons for the boat’s sinking were not immediately clear.
Earlier in the week, two women and two children died off the eastern Greek island of Kos when a smuggling boat crossing from nearby Turkey capsized. Another 27 people were rescued.
Greece lies on a popular route into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with tens of thousands heading to Greek islands, usually in smuggling boats from the nearby Turkish coast, or making the longer and more treacherous journey across the Mediterranean from north Africa.
More than 42,000 migrants were registered as having arrived in Greece by early October, with the vast majority arriving by sea, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
As the search and rescue operation continued off southern Greece, European Union leaders were meeting in Brussels to discuss migration, seeking ways to make the bloc a more hostile destination for migrants and asylum seekers following a recent surge in support for the extreme right, which has fomented opposition to foreigners.
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