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Dead immigrant fished of Tilos

The corpse of an undocumented migrant was recovered by coast guard from the sea east of Tilos, in international waters when a boat carrying unspecified number of irregular migrants sank there after a fire, the cause of which is unclear.

The control tower of the airport on the island of Rhodes informed the Port Authority and then the Unified Search and Rescue Center of the Merchant Marine Ministry about the incident. Possibly a plane passing over the point alerted to the outbreak of fire on the boat.

The alarm was immediately sounded and a coast guard vessel immediately rushed to the scene, along with a helicopter and a private vessel. The Turkish coastguard also rushed to the point and collected a unknown number of migrants.

Investigations are continuing in the area for any missing migrants.

Meanwhile sixteen migrants were rescued in the morning by the coast guard in the area of northeast Mytilene. Also seventeen irregular migrants identified and arrested last night on Chios.

Two traffickers and sixty one migrants were identified and arrested yesterday by personnel of the Port Authority of Symi. Immigrants aboard a sailing vessel did not stop to be checked, and changing course, ran aground on a rocky shore while two traffickers fled. Immigrants were collected safely. The two smugglers were later arrested with the assistance of the police.