Two migrant boat tragedies claim lives off Greece

At least 16 migrants have died and 30 more are still missing after two boats sank in stormy seas off the Greek coast.

Dozens scrambled ashore on the island of Kythira, in the south of the country, as around 80 people were rescued when their boat broke up having "smashed against the rocks", in the words of one eyewitness, with The Guardian newspaper reporting that all 16 who died were women.

"It was an unbelievable sight," local resident Martha Stathaki told the Associated Press news agency. "All the residents here went down to the harbor to try and help."

Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Kokkalas told state television that the women who had been rescued were "all from African countries, aged 20 upward."

"(They) were in a full state of panic so we are still trying to work out what happened … there is a search on land as well as at sea and we hope that survivors made it to land," he added.

Further east, a dinghy got into difficulty off the coast of the island of Lesbos. Although nine people were rescued from the total of around 40 who were on board, 16 bodies have been recovered, and the rest remain unaccounted for.

Local officials claimed the boat had come from the Turkish port of Ayvalik and Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi called on the country to take "immediate action to prevent all irregular departures due to harsh weather conditions".

Greece's numerous islands and proximity to Turkiye make it one of the most popular access points for migrants trying to access the European Union, and it has accused Turkiye of not doing enough to prevent boats entering its waters, leading to the controversial and potentially dangerous tactic of pushing boats back.

"We don't allow boats coming from Turkiye to enter our territorial waters," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview on British television program Good Morning Britain in November 2021.

"We always try — very effectively, I would argue — to save the lives of people in danger. But we call on the Turkish Coast Guard to do its job, respecting the agreement signed between the (EU) and Turkiye.

"In the last three years we have accepted more than 50,000 asylum applications," he continued, "therefore no one has the right to accuse Greece of not respecting human rights," adding that Turkiye should uphold its side of the joint declaration on migrants it had issued with the EU in 2016.

"It can do more to stop illegal migration … if you don't send a clear message that you are protecting your borders, more people will try to enter Greece illegally."