An official of the coast guard said that 18 migrants drowned after their boat capsized 26 miles (40km) south of Chrysi in southern Greece. Two were rescued.

The boat was first detected by a Turkish freight ship which then contacted Greek authorities.

Officially, it was confirmed that the survivors would be taken to Crete.

In 2015-16, Greece was at the forefront of the migration crisis as more than one million migrants from the Middle East migrated to Europe.

Since then, the number of migrants has decreased, but in the past year, the number of boats heading to Crete, Gavdos, and Chrysi, the three Aegean Islands closest to the African coast, has increased dramatically. Fatal accidents remain common. (Reporting and editing by Kevin Liffey; Lefteris papadimas)

(source: Reuters)