In the sea near Rhodes, four migrants drowned, and 25 were saved by swimming to land after a smuggler forced them to jump out of the boat while transporting them from Turkey to Greece, the coast guard that pulled the bodies from the sea announced today.
The bodies of three men and one woman were found near the coast in the south of Rhodes. A group of 25 survivors were found on land, with police initially locating an initial group of 11 people and the rest being found subsequently.
The survivors told authorities they were traveling to the Greek island from the nearby Turkish coast in a speedboat when the smuggler who was piloting the boat forced them to jump into the water and fled.
The search and rescue operation in the area was called off this afternoon when authorities determined from the survivors that there were no more missing. The nationality of the passengers is not yet known.
Greece lies on a migration route for people fleeing war and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with tens of thousands heading to the Greek islands, usually by boat from the Turkish coast.
Migration Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said the government is seeking a tougher EU migration policy and is considering the creation of detention facilities on the islands of Rhodes and Crete after the rate of arrivals by sea more than doubled since last fall.
By the beginning of November, slightly more than 50.000 migrants had arrived in Greece, and more than 43.000 had arrived by sea, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency.
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