Photo: Loucozade / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
CRETE, Greece – Greek authorities recovered 13 bodies from a boat carrying migrants found sailing south of the island of Crete early Monday, and one of the 18 other people rescued from the same boat was later confirmed dead at a health center on Crete, the Greek coast guard said. That makes 14 dead from that vessel. The coast guard has not established what caused the deaths.
The photograph shows a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol vessel in 2021. It is an archival image of a coast guard boat, not a photo of Monday’s rescue.
The coast guard gave no immediate information on the identities or nationalities of the people aboard. Statements reviewed for this report do not say the boat sank. Coast guard figures for the same boat have varied slightly: some accounts of its briefings put it at 12 bodies recovered and 18 rescued, with one person who was taken to hospital later dying. Those differences are not resolved here.
The deaths are part of a wider toll over the weekend. The coast guard said 21 people have died trying to reach Crete since Saturday, counting the boat found Monday and a separate boat off southern Crete on Saturday evening, from which eight bodies were recovered and 28 people rescued. Two people from that boat were reported missing. The coast guard also found more than 180 other people on three other boats heading across the Mediterranean from North Africa, and port authorities said 105 people were rescued Monday.
Greek authorities said the boat found Monday may have been at sea for days, struggling toward shore in strong winds. Frontex, the European Union border agency, used an aircraft and a drone to help locate the boats, and a Morocco-flagged container ship spotted the vessel found south of the island.
Crete has become one of the main routes into the European Union for migrants leaving Libya. The UN refugee agency says more than 37,000 migrants have reached Greece so far in 2026, and more than 22,000 of them landed on Crete, according to the UN refugee agency. The government has announced plans for a temporary housing complex near Heraklion.
The death toll could change as the coast guard completes its count. Still unknown: the cause of death for those on the boat, where it departed, who the dead are, and whether anyone aboard is missing.
JBizNews Desk | Crete, Greece
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