Eight dead, 18 rescued as speedboat carrying migrants capsizes near Greek island of Rhodes

Speedboat capsizes off Rhodes, Greece, leaving 8 dead, 18 rescued; part of spike in migrant arrivals from Middle East.

A speedboat carrying migrants capsized Friday (December 20, 2024) morning off the eastern Greek island of Rhodes, leaving eight dead, Greek authorities said.

The coast guard said the incident occurred while the speedboat was carrying out “dangerous maneuvers” to try and evade a patrol vessel, causing migrants to fall into the sea. Eighteen of the migrants were rescued.

Rescue workers on three coast guard vessels and a helicopter were working near the resort area of Afantou Beach in the northeast of the island. It was unclear whether other passengers were missing, authorities said.

Eight of the survivors have been hospitalized, local officials said, with one of them in critical condition, according to state-run television.

Rhodes, one of several large Greek islands located near the coast of Turkey, is on a busy illegal smuggling route in the eastern Mediterranean.

At the main port of the island, police and ambulance workers held up sheets of gray tarp as the recovered bodies were carried into an ambulance.

It was the second deadly incident involving migrants in the past week, as authorities in Athens brace for a spike in arrivals as a result of wars in the Middle East.