Italy is favorite destination: Hellenic Coast Guard rescues over 50 migrants refused to be rescued

 

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 1. The Greek coast guard rescued 56 migrants, some 33 miles offshore from the island of Kefalonia, and transported them to the north-western port of Igoumenitsa on the mainland.

 According to an official statement from the Coast Guard, the migrants initially refused help from nearby ships and the Greek authorities, but agreed to be rescued later when weather conditions worsened.
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2. Faced with accusations of pushing back refugees and migrants, Greece’s Coast Guard said it offered to save a group in trouble on the Ionian Sea but that they refused to be helped.

There were at least 56 people on board a sailboat that ran into high winds near the island of Kefalonia, the Coast Guard said, without explaining why they didn’t want to be rescued.

“All through the day, the migrants radioed back that they would not accept any assistance from nearby vessels and from the Greek authorities,” the Coast Guard said in a statement, reported Agence France-Presse.

It was only after nightfall, and with weather conditions worsening, that the migrants agreed to be picked up by a passing Singapore-flagged tanker instead, the statement said.

They were taken to the port of Igoumenitsa in northwestern Greece but there wasn’t any information immediately available on their nationality or to where they were headed, although Italy is a favorite destination.