Athens, June 19 (IANS) Greece's Coast Guard rescued 108 migrants after a sailing boat sank off Delos island in the Aegean Sea on Sunday, Greek authorities said.Four people were missing based on statements of the survivors, according to an e-mailed press release of the Coast Guard, Xinhua news agency reported. Twenty-one minors were among the rescued. All have been transferred to the nearby Mykonos island. Their nationalities have still not been identified.A rescue operation continues as winds up to 7 on the Beaufort scale are blowing in the area, according to the statement. The incident occurred under similar conditions in the early hours on Sunday when Greek authorities received a distress call, and none of the passengers had lifejackets on, it added.Over a million refugees and migrants have crossed into Greece, mainly from Turkey since 2015, fleeing warzones and extreme poverty. Most continued their journey to other European countries until the closure of borders along the Balkan route in 2016 and the EU-Turkey agreement for joint efforts to stem the influx into Europe.Numbers of new arrivals have decreased since then, but still thousands of people reach Greece through the Aegean Sea or the land border every year.
--IANS
int/skp/
(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)
