Four die in Greece after smuggler allegedly forces passengers off boat

Twenty-five other people found alive on island of Rhodes after swimming to shore, according to the Greek coastguard.

Authorities in Greece have recovered the bodies of four people from the sea just off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Rhodes while another 25 people have been found alive on land, the Greek coastguard says.

The bodies of three men and one woman were recovered near the southern tip of Rhodes on Wednesday, according to the coastguard.

The group of 25 survivors were found alive after swimming to shore. Police originally located an initial group of 11 people shortly after midnight and the rest were found afterwards. The nationalities of the people remain unclear.

The survivors told authorities that they had been travelling to the Greek island from the nearby Turkish coast by speedboat when the smuggler driving the vessel forced them overboard into the water and left.

A search and rescue operation in the area was called off on Wednesday afternoon once authorities ascertained from survivors that there were no further people missing.

Wednesday’s fatal incident comes just weeks after two people died near the Greek island of Samos in October. Four more people, including two infants, were lost near the Greek island of Kos a few days earlier.

Greece has been a favoured gateway to the European Union for migrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia since 2015 when nearly 1 million people landed on its islands.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said 48,158 arrivals have been recorded so far in 2024, of whom about 42,000 arrived by boat and 6,000 by crossing the land frontier with Turkey.

Rhodes is among the Greek islands that have seen a growing influx of asylum seekers in recent months.

Greece’s migration minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, has said the government is seeking stricter EU migration policies and is considering creating detention facilities on the islands of Rhodes and Crete after the rate of arrivals by sea has more than doubled in the past year.

But rights groups and NGOs have repeatedly said such facilities abuse the rights of people seeking refuge and would amount to prison camps along EU borders.