Greece’s coast guard embarked on a search and rescue operation of a distressed migrant boat off the shores of the Greek island of Samos Tuesday morning, the AP reports.
The operation commenced following a distress call from a migrant on the boat to emergency services who also told the coast guard that there are some 40 people on board the vessel.
The search and rescue operation involved a helicopter and vessel from the European border patrol agency, Frontex, as well as a coast guard vessel that were deployed off the north coast of Samos.
When the coast guard located the vessel there were 49 migrants reported to be on board. There are no more details about the rescue operation at this time.
On Tuesday morning, prior to the 49 new arrivals, the Refugee Crisis Management Coordination Body’s released data that according to its latest reports there are over 60,000 refugees and migrants in Greece and that 183 new arrivals have entered Greece in past 24 hours.
The EU-Turkey migrant deal that details migrants who are not granted asylum after arriving in Greece can be sent back to Turkey lessened the amount of refugees attempting to cross the sea from Turkey to enter Greece considerably earlier this year.
However, in the past month Greece has seen an influx in migrant crossings from Turkey to Greece ever since the failed military coup attempt in Turkey this past July. The coup attempt has caused much instability in Turkey and has threatened the security of the EU-Turkey migrant deal.
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