At least five people have died, 40 are reported missing, and 39 have been rescued after a migrant boat sank off the Greek island of Gavdos, south of Crete, according to Greece’s coastguard.
The boat capsized shortly after midnight on Saturday, prompting a large-scale rescue operation involving vessels and aircraft.
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In separate incidents on the same day, a Malta-flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants from a boat about 40 nautical miles (74km) off Gavdos, while a tanker rescued another 88 people approximately 28 nautical miles (52km) from the island.
Preliminary reports suggest the boats departed together from Libya.
This tragedy is part of a growing number of shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean, particularly around Crete and Gavdos, over the past year.
Greece has seen a significant increase in migrant arrivals this year, with a 25% rise in total numbers, driven by people fleeing war and poverty, and a 30% surge in arrivals to Rhodes and the southeast Aegean, according to the Ministry of Migration.
In 2015-2016, Greece was the entry point for nearly one million migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, many of whom risked their lives crossing the sea in inflatable dinghies.
In late November, eight people, six of them minors, died north of the island of Samos, on a route frequently used by people-smugglers.
According to United Nations statistics, which are based largely on survivor accounts, 1,536 people have died or gone missing and are presumed dead in the central Mediterranean so far this year.
The International Organization for Migration said more than 30,309 refugees have died in the Mediterranean in the past decade, including more than 3,000 last year.
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