The bodies of a woman and a four-year-old boy were found off the Greek island of Ikaria in the eastern Aegean Sea after a boat carrying more than 50 migrants capsized, Greek state television ERT reported. Three people are missing and 45 others have been rescued, BTA reported.
Search and rescue operations are continuing at the moment, with a rescue boat with a team of divers searching the Perdiki area in the northeastern part of the island.
According to information from the online edition of the Greek newspaper „Kathimerini“ The rescue operation began after reports that a boat had abandoned a group of illegal migrants on a rocky stretch of the island's coastline, with witnesses saying some of the migrants were unable to reach shore.
Ikaria is located near the western coast of Turkey, where people seeking asylum in the European Union often depart, notes Agence France-Presse. Many migrants are trying to make the dangerous crossing not only between Turkey and nearby Greek islands, but also between Libya and Crete (southern Greece).
In early December, 17 people were found dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Crete, 15 others were reported missing, and only two survived.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) registered 107 people who died or went missing in Greek waters in 2025, AFP noted.
According to “Missing Migrants“, a project of the UN International Organization for Migration, about 33,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.