False alarm for migrant wreck
The coast guard yesterday stopped searching for illegal immigrants in the sea off the southern Peloponnese after claims of a boat wreck were found to be untrue, officials said. The search was called off after a trawler was discovered on the small island of Elafonissos, off the southern Peloponnese coast, along with three men of undisclosed foreign nationality who were arrested. The three men said they had sailed from Egypt, landing 57 clandestine immigrants on the neighboring island of Antikythera on Tuesday night. They subsequently attempted to sail back to Egypt but ran aground on Elafonissos. Some of the 57 migrants found on Antikythera told Greek authorities that they had swum to shore after their boat foundered, and that 40 people remained in the water amid gale-force winds. (AFP)
