NEWS

Coast guard intercepts 180 migrants in Aegean in two days

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.

Officers rescued 52 would-be migrants off the coast of Chios after they pierced their dinghy. Another 15 immigrants were found on a beach in a different part of the island.

Coast Guard officers said they also rescued 33 migrants from a rubber dinghy that started taking on water off between the islets of Agathonisi and Farmakonisi.

The rescue operations came just a few hours after the coast guard rescued a total of 52 migrants in three operations in the Aegean — one off Rhodes, another off Samos and the third off the coast of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese.

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