Migrants die crossing river
Authorities in the northern port of Alexandroupoli said yesterday that they had recovered the bodies of 11 drowned immigrants from the banks of the Evros River since Saturday. The bodies were discovered by local fishermen who reported the gruesome finds to police. The migrants, believed to have been of African origin and aged between 20 and 25, appear to have drowned in their attempt to cross the river from neighboring Turkey in flimsy rowboats. The director of the Alexandroupoli general hospital, Nikos Raptopoulos, reported a sharp increase in the deaths of would-be migrants seeking to enter Greece illegally, noting that drownings had become «virtually a daily phenomenon.» Raptopoulos said that the city’s morgue was full, currently accommodating the corpses of 17 migrants. According to migrants’ associations, hundreds of would-be immigrants have drowned in their attempt to cross the Evros River in recent years.
