A Greek passenger ferry on Monday sent its lifeboats to rescue 61 migrants whose boat was at risk of sinking off the island of lesbos, port police said. The Blue Star 1 took 35 of the survivors aboard and carried them to safety on lesbos, where they joined the rest of the group, who were picked up by the port police on speedboats.
Passengers on the Blue Star 1 raised the alarm after seeing the migrants’ overloaded boat was on the verge of sinking.
lesbos is one of several Greek islands struggling to cope with an influx of thousands of migrants, many of them Syrian refugees, setting sail from the Turkish coast.
Some 2,500 migrants were transported from lesbos to Athens’ Piraeus port on Monday by the Eleftherios Venezelos, one of two Government-chartered ships making regular trips to the mainland in a bid to relieve pressure on the islands.