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KARYSTOS, Greece - The dead bodies of three migrants whose boat sank off the waters between the islands of Evia and Andros, east of the Greek capital, over the weekend were discovered on Saturday, Greece’s coast guard confirmed to Rudaw, raising the confirmed death toll to 25.
Of the 25 confirmed dead, five are children.
The Greek coastguard confirmed that a search-and-rescue operation has been ongoing for another 31 other people still reported missing.
Two of the 12 survivors, all men, were arrested on suspicion of being the smugglers that had organized the voyage from Turkey's Izmir.
The survivors, who were found on an uninhabited islet, had told Greek authorities that at least 68 people were on the sailboat.
Rudaw has learned that a significant number of Kurds were on the boat. Their identities have still remain unknown.
At least 27 people drowned in two separate shipwrecks last month, with both setting sails from Turkey to Greece.
Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants. However, the flow was cut off following the arrival of nearly one million people, including Syrian Kurds, in Europe after crossing to Greek islands close to Turkey in 2015.
Tens of thousands of mostly young Kurds left the Kurdistan Region for Europe last year in search of a better life, using people’s smuggling routes. A number of these migrants died in freezing temperatures on the Belarus-Poland border and others drowned in the sea, suffering a catastrophic fate.
Dozens of mourning families received the bodies of their loved ones in Erbil in February. Their repatriation followed a directive issued by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
The bodies of 16 migrants, who drowned in the deadliest migrant disaster in the English Channel, were returned to the Kurdistan Region in late December.
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