One fatality was the result of yet another incident involving migrant smugglers and the Greek coast guard in the waters of the eastern Aegean near Symi, with reports stating that the pilot of the speedboat was killed before dawn on Friday.
An initial coast guard announcement said the speedboat was detected coming from the opposite Turkish coast towards the Dodecanese Isle from the northwest. When approached by a coast guard patrol boat the craft’s pilot ignored visual and loudspeaker orders to stop, and at one point rammed the latter vessel’s port side.
Coast guard personnel first fired warning shots in the air, with no result. They then fired at the speedboat’s outboard engine to halt the boat. Once finally stopped in the water, the pilot of the craft was found fatally injured, possibly by a direct hit from a flare.
The body of the victim, described only as a 39-year-old man, was taken to a hospital on the island of Rhodes for an autopsy.
Another 13 people – seven men, one woman and five minors – on the speedboat, ostensibly third country nationals attempting to illegally land on Greek territory, were led to the Symi harbor. Two of the latter men were arrested on migrant-smuggling charges.
While significant decreased from the mass influx of third country nationals landing on Greek isles in 2015 and 2016, smuggling incidents continue unabated in the eastern Aegean and, increasingly, along the southern coast of Crete. Crime networks operating from western Turkey and with “tentacles” in Greece and throughout Europe are believed to have made billions of euros from funneling illegal migrants towards EU territory.
