ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities say another sailboat carrying dozens of migrants arrived Thursday at Kythera, the third in just under two days to make it to the southern island that isn’t on the usual route for asylum-seekers trying to reach the European Union.
Greece’s coast guard said 67 people had been on board the sailing catamaran that arrived in a harbor on Kythera’s western coast, and that all had disembarked themselves. Their nationalities and where they had set sail from weren’t immediately known.
In all, 237 migrants arrived on the island between the early hours of Wednesday and around mid-day Thursday. Of the two other sailboats that reached the island Wednesday, the first ran aground on the island’s southern coast with 97 people on board — 93 from Afghanistan, three from Turkey and one from Pakistan, authorities said.
The passengers made it to shore themselves, and no one was reported injured or missing. The coast guard said Thursday that the boat had set sail from the Cesme area in Turkey and the group included 55 children. The three Turkish nationals on board, ages 30, 29 and 17, were arrested as suspected migrant-smugglers.