At least eight migrants drown after boat collision off Greek coast | News

Authorities said at least eight people died after the driver lost control of the boat while trying to escape.

At least eight refugees and migrants have drowned off the coast of Greece after the coast guard pursued a boat they were on in the Aegean Sea.

The speedboat capsized near the island of Rhodes while trying to escape from a Greek patrol ship, authorities said on Friday, adding that 18 people were rescued.

A Coast Guard statement said the driver “lost control” of the boat, causing several passengers to fall overboard.

Coast guard ships recovered eight bodies while a Greek Air Force helicopter searched for survivors. It remains unclear how many people were on board.

Greek authorities said they discovered the ship as it attempted to disembark people near Afandou beach on the east coast of the Greek island of Rhodes.

Greek media outlet Kathimerini reported that the boat collided with the coast guard vessel during the chase, adding that the boat’s driver was arrested.

According to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Greece has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of arriving migrants and refugees this year, and even 30 percent in Rhodes and the southeast Aegean.

At the end of November, nine people died, including six minors and two women two boats sank in isolated incidents near the islands of Samos and Lesbos.

Another five people died in one Sinking near the island of Crete earlier this month.

Greece has been accused of an increasingly hostile attitude towards migration in recent years. His coast guard was repeated accused Asylum seekers and humanitarian organizations are attempting to capsize boats by attempting to tow them or preventing them from disembarking on shores.

The European Union also found this Evidence of human rights violations in the recently established EU-funded refugee camps on the Greek Aegean islands, including allegations of sexual and other violence against children.