At least three people drowned, while 90 other migrants were rescued as a vessel carrying them sank off the Greek island of Rhodes in the southeastern Aegean Sea, the Greek Coast Guard said.Among the survivors, who were mainly Syrians and Ethiopians, were 22 women and six children, Xinhua reported on Monday.Initial estimates had put the number of people on board the wooden boat at 200.However, survivors insisted that there were 100-150 people on board the vessel. They said that the boat had sailed from Turkey and they had paid human traffickers 2,500 euros each.The survivors said that the captain of the boat fled on a jet ski as the vessel was getting close to the rocks, the Regional Governor of Southern Aegean Sea, Yorgos Chatzimarkos, told reporters.The vessel crashed on the rocks and sank within minutes and people struggled to reach safety with the aid of the local people who rushed to their rescue.Manolis Stavris, the captain of a tug boat, who was among the first to reach the migrants told Greek media how he witnessed the three victims perishing in the sea and described how he saved an infant.
Local authorities were put on alert to provide shelter to the migrants and refugees, as the Greek government reiterated calls to its European Union (EU) partners to step up efforts to address the ongoing "humanitarian crisis" at its roots and offer more assistance to people who reach European shores desperate for a better life.The incident at Rhodes comes close on the heels of a similar boat capsize in the Mediterranean, south of Italy's Sicily island, in which nearly 700 people were feraed to have drowned. Furthermore, earlier this month, over 400 migrants were believed to have drowned in a boat capsize off the Libyan coast.Greece and Italy, are the two key transit points for people entering Europe illegally to seek a better life. Thousands of people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea in the process.Owing to the ongoing conflicts in the wider region, the number of undocumented migrants and refugees reaching Greece has trebled in the first three months of 2015, compared to that of last year, exceeding 10,000 people so far, Greece's Deputy Minister of Migration, Tassia Christodoulopoulou, said last week.
Greece estimated that should inflows continue at this rate, the debt-ridden country would receive 100,000 undocumented migrants and refugees this year.Greece and other southern European countries are seeking more support from the EU to address the issue. European foreign and interior ministers on Monday presented a 10-point plan on the immediate actions to be taken in response to the migrant crisis.The plan called for reinforcing the joint operations in the Mediterranean Sea, and increasing financial resources and number of assets.The majority of the migrants taking to sea in an attempt to reach Europe are from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.At least 218,000 migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea last year to enter the EU from its southern borders. Some 3,500 of them lost their lives in the attempt, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a recent statement, adding that the trend is "expected to continue".