On April 14, 2025, the Greek Coast Guard discovered two women’s bodies and rescued 39 other migrants on the remote Aegean island of Farmakonisi, approximately 9.7 kilometers from Turkey’s coast. The migrants had reportedly reached the island earlier that day. Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths and are continuing to search for additional survivors of a potential shipwreck. The rescued individuals were transferred to the nearby island of Leros.
This incident adds to the growing number of migrant tragedies in the region. Earlier this month, at least seven migrants, including one boy, one girl, and two women, drowned when their boat sank off the island of Lesbos.
Greece remains a primary entry point into the European Union for migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Since 2015, the Greek Coast Guard has rescued over 250,000 people amid a prolonged migration crisis, during which nearly one million people landed on its islands from Turkey. Thousands have died at sea, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
The Greek government has intensified sea patrols in response to these incidents, prompting smuggling operations to shift towards using larger vessels from North Africa to southern Greece. According to the UN, over 8,000 migrants arrived in Greece by sea in the first quarter of 2025. Last year saw over 54,000 arrivals through the eastern Mediterranean route and more than 7,700 via Greece’s land border with Turkey, with 125 people reported dead or missing.
The ongoing migration crisis underscores the urgent need for comprehensive international cooperation to address the root causes of displacement and to enhance rescue operations and safety measures in the Mediterranean region.