On 5 May 2014, a

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

and a

dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...

, both overcrowded and carrying migrants destined for

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, capsized about four nautical miles off the coast of the Greek island of

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...

, in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

. The vessels had been trying to enter Greece illegally at the time they overturned. The cause of the capsizing remains unclear, since weather conditions at the time and place where it occurred were said to have been relatively good.

Details and casualties

The two boats were carrying an estimated 68 people. Officials stated that 36 of the rescued were from

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

, Eritrea, and Syria, and that the 22 lost---including a family trapped in a flooded cabin---were probably from the same countries. At the time, Nicholas Paphitis of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

said that Samos is "a favorite destination for migrant-smuggling gangs because it's close to the Turkish coast." Paphitis also reported that "up to seven" people were missing, but quoted

Hellenic Coast Guard The Hellenic Coast Guard ( el, Λιμενικό Σώμα-Ελληνική Ακτοφυλακή, Limeniko Soma-Elliniki Aktofylaki, Port Corps-Hellenic Coast Guard) is the national coast guard of Greece. Like many other coast guards, it is a para ...

spokesman Nikos Lagadianos as saying, "We can't give a precise number of missing people with any certainty."

Reactions

The

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

reacted to the news by saying that they were "deeply saddened" by the deaths, and appealed to European governments to seek "legal migration alternatives" for people fleeing war zones. A pair of Samos residents who watched the boats capsize wrote an article for

Greek Reporter Greek Reporter is a news organization for Greek people around the world. It functions as a news agency and online portal consisting of a collection of internet news web sites for Greek people and people of Greek descent who live and work in and ...

in which they stated, "That such highly vulnerable people seeking refuge and safety are compelled to travel in small boats at high cost is entirely due to the inhumanity of the EU policies and practices with respect to migration in general and refugees in particular."

References

{{Reflist Shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea Shipwrecks of Greece Transport disasters involving refugees of the Arab Winter (2011–present) 2014 in Greece Maritime incidents in 2014 Migrant boat disasters in the Mediterranean Sea