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Two-month-old dies in migrant shipwreck off Lesvos in delayed rescue

An NGO involved in the rescue operation said Greek police blocked its team from reaching the migrants for two hours, saying: "We will never know if these two hours would have allowed us to save the baby's life."

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Many people fleeing Africa and the Middle East seek to enter Greece, Italy and Spain in hope of better lives in the European Union.

A two-month-old baby has been recovered dead from a migrant wreckage off Lesvos (Midilli).

The baby boy, who was found in the early hours of Friday, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead, coroner Theodoros Nousias said on Saturday.

The Greek coastguard service said on Saturday it had been called to the area at noon on Friday. It found 30 migrants alive, two of them slightly injured, and the dead baby.

Humanitarian organisation MSF Sea tweeted on Saturday evening that it had received an alert about people in need.

Its team "provided medical and psychological support to 34 survivors", it said, giving a higher tally than the coastguards. "Tragically, a two-month-old baby was found dead."

The NGO complained that police blocked its team from reaching the migrants for two hours and coastguards did the same with another team.

On our way to the location, the Greek police stopped us for almost 2 hours, delaying the possibility to provide timely medical attention. Another team was stopped by Hellenic Coast Guard. We will never know if these two hours would have allowed us to save the life of the baby.
— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) December 17, 2022

16 believed to be missing

The wreckage occurred when the plastic dinghy carrying migrants of mostly African origin hit rocks on the shore in the Fara area, sources at the Lesbos migrant reception centre said.

The migrants managed to reach the shore and inform the local authorities.

MSF Sea said it believed 16 other people from the boat had reached Lesbos and were now missing, including the baby's mother.

The Greek coastguard service says it rescued about 1,500 people in the first eight months of 2023, compared to fewer than 600 over the same period last year.

However, there have been several reports of illegal pushbacks and further human rights breaches by Greek authorities, denounced by human rights groups and media outlets.

Türkiye, on several occasions, has shared video evidence of Greece's illegal pushbacks and rescued helpless migrants that Athens further endangered.

Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back irregular migrants, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law.

Many people fleeing Africa and the Middle East seek to enter Greece, Italy and Spain in hope of better lives in the European Union.

The International Organization for Migration has recorded nearly 2,000 migrants as dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea this year.