The Greek coastguard has reported that 22 migrants died at sea off the Greek coast after 6 days in a dinghy heading to Europe.

On Friday, a European border agency ship rescued 26 survivors, including a woman and a child. Two of them were hospitalized in Heraklion on the island of Crete.

“News agency AFP reported on 21 March that the migrant boat had sailed out of the port of Tobruk in eastern Libya, quoting a spokesperson of the coastguard. The deaths were due to poor weather and lack of food and water,” the coastguard said.

Greece, as well as Italy, is the destination of a high flow of undocumented migrants through the Mediterranean, most of them being from neighbouring Turkey and northern Africa.

A great number of these crossings are made during the summer when the weather is less apt to become bad.

“During the journey, the passengers [of the dinghy] lost their orientation and remained at sea for six days without water and food,” the Greek coastguard said.

The boat was then finally halted 53 nautical miles off Ierapetra, a city on the south coast of Crete.

Greek police and officials reported that two South Sudanese, aged 19 and 22, were arrested on suspicion of people trafficking.

Wanted now is the investigation of them on “illegal entry into the country” and “negligent homicide.”

The coastguard told them that 21 of the survivors were Bangladeshi, four South Sudanese and one Chadian.

The UN refugee organisation UNHCR estimates that at least 41,696 people arrived in Greece by sea in 2025. Over 4000 have already come this year.

However, it can be a dangerous ride, particularly during bad weather, and people smugglers tend to put too many people in boats without sufficient provisions or lifejackets.

In 2025, UNHCR recorded at least 103 people who were dead or missing in the eastern Mediterranean.

In December, 17 migrants were found dead in a boat that had been filling up with water and was partly submerged off the Cretan coast.