ATHENS: The Greek coast guard recovered four bodies Tuesday after an inflatable boat carrying 38 migrants capsized off the island of Lesbos.
“The four bodies were discovered off the Gulf of Gera on Lesbos while 34 people were discovered on the coast nearby,” a police spokesperson said.
Identification of the victims and the survivors was ongoing, they added.
The migrants’ boat ran aground near the coast then began to sink as strong winds whipped up waves of up to 1.5 meters (five feet), according to the Greek ANA news agency.
Most of the survivors were from African countries and were taken to a reception and registration center on Lesbos, the agency said.
Lesbos, like other Greek islands in the Aegean Sea near neighboring Turkiye, is one of the main entry points into Europe for people fleeing war and poverty.
The perilous crossings are often fatal. In April, seven people, including three children, died when their inflatable boat capsized off the island.
Greece has seen an increase in the number of migrant and refugee arrivals further south on Crete, coming in particular from Libya.
The conservative government hardened its migration policy in July, suspending asylum claims for three months from people coming from north Africa.
The move has been criticized by a number of international organizations, including the UN refugee agency and the Council of Europe.
Four migrants die as boat capsizes off Greece
https://arab.news/wztka
Four migrants die as boat capsizes off Greece
- The four bodies were discovered off the Gulf of Gera on Lesbos
- Most of the survivors were from African countries
UK to cut protections for refugees under asylum ‘overhaul’
- PM Starmer announced the cuts amid mounting pressure in the face of soaring support for the hard right
- More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year in the UK
LONDON: Britain will drastically reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the Labour government said on Saturday.
The measures were announced as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure over irregular migration in the face of soaring support for the hard right.
“I’ll end UK’s golden ticket for asylum seekers,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement.
Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship.
But Mahmood’s ministry, known as the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months.
That protection will be “regularly reviewed” and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added.
The ministry also said that it intended to make those refugees who are granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term, instead of the current five.
The Home Office called the proposals the “largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times.”
Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors.
More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys — more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022.
The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year.
Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with some 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures.
