The deaths of four children who were taken Sunday morning from the sea area off Leros have been linked to hypothermia. Rescuers in critical condition took them to the island’s hospital, where they ended up a few hours later. They are three children from the Congo, aged one, two and four, and an infant just a few months old from Nigeria. They were traveling with their parents in an inflatable boat that left Turkey on Saturday evening and capsized in Pandeli waters on the southeast side of the island. A woman of African descent was also pulled out of the water, dead, but her identity was not established until last night. Two foreigners, one from Afghanistan and the other from the Congo, are expected to be prosecuted as human traffickers, as the rescued’s statements revealed that they were driving a boat from the Turkish coast to Leros.

Drive

An inflatable boat with 46 migrants crashed on sharp rocks, leaving children aged one, two and four years old and a baby a few months old in the icy sea.

In total, 46 people participated in the immigrant group. They testified that they had started their journey from the Smyrna area, hiding in a truck, and that they had each paid between $700 and $1,000 to a gang of human traffickers. They did not give the exact point of departure, but indicated that it took them about two hours to travel from Izmir to the point of departure. Coast Guard officers believe that the most likely landing point for immigrants was the city of Didim, which is opposite Patmos and Leros. They traveled at night and in very bad weather and at dawn were able to approach the southeast coast of the island. However, since it is a steep rocky area, they approached the shore without being able to land. The inflatable boat punctured and the migrants ended up in the water. At 7:30 am Sunday, a fisherman spotted a woman’s body in the sea and called the local port authority. He even said that he could see some of the people sitting on the rocky shore. About an hour later, police, coast guards and rescuers found 33 people safe and sound on the rocky part of the island. Seven children were hospitalized in critical condition. One of them had no pulse at all, but the doctors temporarily managed to bring him back to life. In the end, four of them passed. According to Coast Guard sources, their deaths were due to hypothermia. In addition to the five confirmed deaths, survivors’ statements indicate that three people, one woman and two children, are still missing.

In bad weather

Coast Guard officials note that a slave trading network operating in the area across from Leros prefers to “drive off” migrant boats during days and hours of severe bad weather, in the expectation that Coast Guard patrols will not patrol. They also say traffickers prefer to place many young children, women in late pregnancy, and even physically disabled people on migrant boats to make it harder for Greek authorities to manage incidents. However, in response to relevant questions, the traffickers denied that they were pressured by the traffickers to get on the boat and stated that they did not see any Turkish women during the voyage from Turkey to Leros.