Hellenic Coast Guard called out to two separate incidents with migrants
The Hellenic Coast Guard picked up migrants in two separate incidents on Wednesday. In one case they were left by a human trafficker on a beach on the island of Kos, and in another rescuing them off a sailboat adrift off southern Peloponnese.
In the incident on Kos, a speedboat driver left 17 migrants near the Psalidi coast and tried to flee but was eventually arrested, the Coast Guard said.
The man drove his speedboat towards the Turkish coast but returned to Kos after being pursued by the Coast Guard. He got off on the island and was found by local authorities on the coastal road with no travel documents. He was arrested by officers of the island’s port authority security.
The 17 migrants reportedly identified the man as the person who drove the speedboat.
Another Coast Guard vessel picked up 63 migrants from a drifting sailboat after its engine failed off Cape Matapan, known as Cape Tainaros, south of Sparta.
The migrants were being transported to Kalamata, in SW Peloponnese. [AMNA]
