At least 59 people have died, and dozens are feared missing after a fishing boat capsized off the coast of southern Greece early Wednesday morning.
Authorities said all the fishing boat passengers were migrants from the Tobruk area in eastern Libya attempting to sail towards Italy when the boat capsized some 75 kilometers (46 miles) southwest of Greece's southern Peloponnese region.
According to the Hellenic Coast Guard, 59 bodies were recovered at sea, and around 104 people were rescued, with dozens more feared to be unaccounted for. Unconfirmed early estimates mention there were hundreds of migrants on board the capsized boat when it sailed off Libya.
A task force of six coast guard vessels, a Hellenic Navy frigate, several private boats, and a handful of planes, helicopters, and drones were taking part in the search.
Dozens of rescued migrants were taken to sheltered areas at the southern Greek port of Kalamata, where the UN Refugee Agency has set up stations for dry clothes and medical attention.
Libyan authorities have been rounding up migrants earlier this month across eastern Libya. Activists said several thousand migrants from several countries had been detained and deported accordingly. While Egyptian migrants were deported back to their home country through a land crossing point, Syrians, Sudanese, and Pakistanis have also been detained in their attempt to leave their troubled homelands for Europe.
Mediterranean smugglers have increasingly taken larger boats into international waters off the Greek mainland to avoid local coast guard patrols.
The incident was the third time the Hellenic Coast Guard responded to a distress call within their maritime areas. On Sunday (June 11), 90 migrants on a US-flagged yacht were rescued within the same area after making a distress call. In a separate incident Wednesday, a yacht with 81 migrants on board was towed to a port on the island of Crete's southern coast after authorities received a distress call.
This is a developing story.
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