“Three bodies were pulled from the water and five people were rescued and are safe,” a police official told AFP.
Peshraw Abdullah, a representative of the Returning Migrants’ Association in Greece told Rudaw that the migrant boat came from western Turkey and sank near the west coast of Samos islands.
The three victims are females, Abdullah said, a woman and two girls aged 10 and 12 years old.
The Hellenic Coastguard has started search and rescue operations to find the missing individuals.
Tens of thousands of people, including some from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, take on perilous routes toward Europe on a yearly basis in hopes of escaping endless crises, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
Abdullah said that he suspects that some of the migrants on board are from the Kurdistan Region.
Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated out of the country in 2023, with at least nine of them losing their lives on the dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to the Lutka Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.
