UNHCR - Statement on boat incident off Greece coast
UNHCR is dismayed to have learned of a boat cap-sizing off the coast of Greece in the early hours of this morning, which has left a woman and a child dead and 10 other people missing, among them infants and children.
According to accounts from some of the 16 survivors and Greek Coast Guard, the vessel was carrying 26 Afghans and two Syrians. It was intercepted in the southern Aegean Sea shortly after midnight following a mechanical breakdown and while apparently en route from Turkey to Greece. The boat, with all 28 passengers still aboard, was being towed by a Coast Guard vessel when it capsized. The survivors, now on the island of Leros, told UNHCR they were being towed in the direction of Turkey at the time of the accident.
"UNHCR is urging the authorities to investigate this incident and how lives were lost on a boat that was under tow," said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR's Southern Europe Regional Representative. "In addition survivors need to be quickly moved to the mainland so that their needs can be better looked after."
Tuesday's incident is the first of its kind in 2014, and the latest in a string of recent boat disasters in the Mediterranean involving people fleeing by sea towards Europe. More than 360 people died on October 3rd 2013 in a capsizing off of Italy's Lampedusa. Several other deadly incidents were reported over the following weeks.
Irregular boat crossings of the Mediterranean typically involve a mix of migrants and asylum seekers but conflict in Syria and the Horn of Africa region is being reflected in recent higher numbers of deaths of people fleeing refugee-producing countries.
In 2013, some 40,000 people arrived by irregularly by boat in Italy, Malta, and Greece. This compares to more than 60,000 in 2011 during the Libya crisis. Irregular boat crossings of the Mediterranean typically occur between March and October during the Spring and summer months, however this year they have been continuing throughout the winter, despite the extreme weather conditions. So far in Italy alone, over 1,700 people have arrived by sea.
UNHCR has urged European and other governments to work together to reduce losses of life among people making dangerous sea journeys across the Mediterranean and the world's other major sea frontiers, including by continuing to strengthen search and rescue operations, as well as the creation of legal migration alternatives to dangerous irregular movements.
Media Contacts
- Ketty Kehayioylou (Athens) +30 694 02 77 485
- Adrian Edwards (Geneva) +41 79 557 9120
- Dan McNorton (Geneva) +41 79 217 3011
Related news and stories
Women-run businesses in Afghanistan dealt a blow by deepening restrictions
Earthquake survivors in Türkiye count the devastating toll
Twelve years on, Syrian refugees face deepening debt and hunger
Twelve years on, Syrian refugees face deepening debt and hunger
UNHCR launches new appeal for Afghan refugees and hosts, urging partners to stay the course
Visiting earthquake-ravaged areas of Türkiye and Syria, UNHCR's Grandi urges more support for survivors trying to rebuild
Your search for « Syria » matched 4302 results. Only the first 1,000 results are displayed. Displaying page 15 of 112 pages.
-
Needs soar as number of Syrian refugees tops 3 million
29 Aug 2014 ... GENEVA, August 29 (UNHCR) -The UN refugee agency reports that Syria's intensifying refugee crisis ... A further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria. Over half of those uprooted are children," UNHCR ...... -
UNHCR and WFP chiefs praise open border policy for Syrian refugees in Iraq's Kurdistan region
30 Aug 2013 ... Camp, 70 kilometers from the border with Syria and home to 45,000 refugees. "I express my deep ... of the Kurdistan region continues to support us and as long as the people of Syria need us." ...... -
Loss of hope and deepening poverty driving Syrians to seek refuge in Europe
25 Sep 2015 ... They need much more support," Awad, who is also the Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Syria ... He stressed the situation would only end when a solution was found for Syria and the region ...... -
A refugee triathlon
1 Jul 2015 ... Sheltering from the heat, a young couple from Syria sits among the trees near a busy highway that ... this is what we must do, we cannot go back to Syria." "This journey has been long and very ...... -
Four million Syrians flee war and persecution
9 Jul 2015 ... July 9) put the total number of refugees from Syria at just over 4,013,000 people. "This is the ... At least an additional 7.6 million people are displaced inside Syria – many of them in difficult ...... -
A Lonely Birth
25 Aug 2015 ... In Qamishli, her small town in Syria, she knew almost all of the hospital doctors and as soon as ... Compared to giving birth at home in Syria, the experience felt lonely. "Rania! What's going on?!" ...... -
Syria's landmarks restored in miniature
5 Jan 2016 ... landmarks in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria – a shocking illustration of the chaos inflicted on the country and its people by years of war. Syria's Landmarks Restored in Miniature – Photo ...... -
Syrian brothers together again
28 Jan 2016 ... Ahmed fled the war in Dara'a, Syria, in 2015 and travelled to Europe on a difficult and hazardous ... "I am thinking of my family in Syria. Life there is very, very difficult." But upon arriving in ...... -
Donors pledge US$4.4 billion to meet needs for Syria
25 Apr 2018 ... need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria and 3.9 million vulnerable people in host communities. ... an entire region, while at the same time Syria has become “a greenhouse for global ......