Twelve dead, 21 rescued as migrant boat sinks off Greek island

At leasttwelvepeople drowned when theirboatsankoffanislandin western Greece on Saturday,Greekauthorities said, marking thedeadliest toll in months in Greece'smigrantcrisis.

Twenty-one people wererescued, the coastguard said.

Helicopters and ships were searching the area south-west of theislandof Paxos for more survivors. Authorities said they had accounts of up to 50 people being on the vessel.

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TheGreekauthorities said they had scrambled to the area after receiving a distress signal from theboatwhich was taking in water. No further details were immediately available.

Greekauthorities regularly detectboatloads ofmigrants heading to Greece from Turkey to its east. Sea disastersoffits western coast, facing Italy, are less common.

Greece was at the frontline of Europe'smigrantcrisis in 2015 and 2016, when more than a million people reached the country, fleeing war in the Middle East and beyond. Its camps and reception centres on outlyingislands facing Turkey are severely overcrowded.

Almost 74,500migrants and refugees made their way to Greece in 2019, most of them by sea, according to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.