Dodecanese

By Tassoula Eptakili *

A total of 138 undocumented immigrants were detained by coast guard officers on the southeastern Aegean island of Symi after their wooden boat foundered on rocks early on Friday in an apparent bid to avoid an inspection by a Latvian coast guard vessel that was monitoring the area as part of the European Union’s Poseidon program.

Coast guard officers detained dozens of undocumented immigrants in the Aegean late Thursday and early on Friday, bringing to 180 the number of people detained on smuggling boats trying to cross to Greece from Turkey.

The Tourism Ministry has sent a team of inspectors from the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) to the island of Rhodes in the Dodecanese to investigate claims that a large number of tourists suffered food poisoning at a luxury hotel at the popular resort of Lindos, Skai reported on Thursday.

Two rescues by Greek coast guard officers early on Thursday led to 65 irregular migrants being pulled from the sea.

A total of 31 migrants were rescued off Samos in the eastern Aegean after they sank the rubber dinghy they had been traveling in.

Another 34 people were rescued off Agathonisi in the Dodecanese in similar circumstances.

Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis on Monday issued an angry response to criticism by Europe’s top human rights official over a decision by a Greek prosecutor to shelve a probe into the deaths of 11 immigrants during a controversial coast guard operation in the Aegean in January.

Coast guard officers rescued a group of 32 undocumented immigrants off the coast of Farmakonisi, in the eastern Aegean, on Thursday.

According to coast guard sources, on spotting the Greek patrol vessel, the migrants pierced the rubber dinghy in which they were traveling in a bid to force a rescue.

Efforts to boost the number of coast guard officers serving on Aegean islands where authorities have to deal with large numbers of undocumented migrants who are smuggled by traffickers from Turkey appear to have failed.

Europe's top human rights official has criticized a decision by a Greek prosecutor earlier this week to shelve the investigation into the deaths of 11 immigrants who drowned during a controversial coast guard operation near the eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonisi in January.

Human rights groups on Thursday slammed a decision by a Greek prosecutor to shelve the investigation into the deaths of 11 immigrants who drowned during a controversial coast guard operation near the eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonisi in January.