At least 13 people died in the Aegean Sea after a migrant boat capsized on Friday, bringing to 27 the combined death toll from three accidents in as many days involving migrant boats in Greek waters.
The sinkings came as smugglers increasingly favor a dangerous route from Turkey to Italy, which avoids Greece's heavily patrolled eastern Aegean islands that for years were at the forefront of the country's migration crisis.
The coast guard said 62 people were rescued after a sailboat capsized about 5 miles off the island of Paros in the central Aegean. Survivors told the coast guard that about 80 people had been on board the vessel.
Five coast guard patrol boats, nine private vessels, a helicopter and a military transport plane and coast guard divers also participated in the night-time search for more survivors, authorities said.
Smugglers in Turkey have increasingly packed yachts with migrants and refugees and sent them to Italy.
Earlier in the day, 11 people were confirmed dead after a sailboat struck a rocky islet some 145 miles south of Athens, near the island of Antikythera. The coast guard said on Friday that 90 survivors 52 men, 11 women and 27 children were rescued after spending hours on the islet.
The Greek office of the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said in a statement that people need safe alternatives to these dangerous crossings.
In a separate incident on Friday, Greek police arrested three people on smuggling charges and detained 92 migrants after a yacht ran aground in the southern Peloponnese region.
A search operation went on for a third day in the central Aegean, where a boat carrying migrants sank near the island of Folegandros, killing at least three people. Thirteen others were saved, and the survivors reported that 17 people were missing. The passengers were originally from Iraq, according to authorities.
Greece is a popular entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. During the last two years, arrivals dropped sharply after Greece extended a wall at the Turkish border and began intercepting inbound boats carrying migrants and refugees, a tactic criticized by human rights groups.
As of December 19th, more than 116,000 asylum-seekers crossed the Mediterranean to reach EU countries this year, according to UNHCR. The agency said 55 percent of the population travelled illegally to Italy, 35 percent to Spain and 7 percent to Greece, with the rest going to Malta and Cyprus.