Dozens missing after migrant boat sinks near Greece

Fears are held for about 50 people who have gone missing after a migrant boat sank off the coast of Greece, while attempting to traverse choppy waters on a route to Italy from southern Turkiye.

Greek authorities said 29 men had been rescued from the Aegean Sea off the coast of Karpathos, but no progress had been made in a search for 50 still missing by late Wednesday, reported The Guardian.

"There were around 80 people on board according to the 29 men who were rescued in the area at around 5 am," a coast guard official said. "Up to 50 people are still missing."

A coast guard spokesperson said the boat had capsized and sunk in international waters, and that the search and rescue operation had begun in the hours of the early morning amid strong winds, reported Reuters.

The rescued migrants, said to be from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, told officials they had set sail from the Antalya area on the southern Turkish coast on route to Italy when they hit trouble during the night.

Ioannis Plakiotakis, the Greek shipping minister, said the search and rescue operation included the country's navy, air force, coast guard patrol boats, as well as commercial ships sailing in the southern Aegean at the time.

"Protecting human life is a daily concern and our absolute priority," Plakiotakis said in a statement.

"In the last two years, in 145 search and rescue operations, more than 6,000 people have been saved."

Sixty-four people have died in the eastern Mediterranean since January, the International Organization for Migration said.

Greece was on the frontier of a European migration crisis in 2015, when nearly 1 million people fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in the country, mainly via Turkiye.

Attempted migrant entries had fallen since then, reported Reuters, though Greek authorities said they have recently seen an increase through the country's islands and land border with Turkiye.

In June, the European Union accused member state Greece of illegal pushbacks of migrant boats and endangering lives.

Greek authorities have denied these accusations, and the center-right Athens government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described its policies on migrants as being "tough but fair", reported The Guardian.

The European Commission last month warned Greece that "violent and illegal deportations of migrants "must stop. Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson noted that EU funds are "linked to EU fundamental rights being correctly applied".