Messenia migrant boat disaster

A Greek coastguard vessel came under fire from a boat carrying undocumented migrants in the eastern Aegean, according to reports Friday.

Greek coastguard officers will testify as suspects as part of a disciplinary investigation into their role in a deadly migrant shipwreck off Greece, three sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Three bodies have been recovered near the site of a migrant shipwreck between Italy and Greece from which more than 60 people were reported missing, a spokesperson for the Italian coast guard said on Tuesday.

The United Nations' refugee and migration agencies on Friday criticized Greece's failure over the past year to shed light on one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea that left hundreds dead.

One person was killed and five were injured in the eastern Aegean when the inflatable boat they were in crashed into the side of a Greek Coast Guard vessel that was pursuing them, Greek authorities said on Saturday.

The incident took place in the sea off the island of ​​Symi on Friday night.

 At least two illegal immigrants have died after a rubber boat, carrying 20 people, drifted and was in danger of sinking due to engine failure off the southwestern town of Bodrum.

Greek police detained nine Egyptians on Thursday saying they could flee the country, despite a court ruling dismissing a case against them over a 2023 shipwreck, one of the deadliest in the Mediterranean.

The disaster shocked Europe and the case has been followed closely in Greece, which has been a gateway to the European Union for thousands of migrants and refugees.

Police in Kalamata clashed with protesters on Tuesday morning outside the southwestern Peloponnesian city's courthouse where nine Egyptian nationals are standing trial over the deadly migrant shipwreck off the coast of nearby Pylos in June 2023.

Nine Egyptian nationals will stand trial Tuesday at Kalamata Three-Member Court of Appeal for Felonies, accused of smuggling in connection with the fishing boat that sank off the Peloponnesian town of Pylos last June.

The legal defense team for nine Egyptian men due to go on trial in southern Greece next week accused of causing one of the Mediterranean's deadliest shipwrecks said Thursday they will argue that Greece has no jurisdiction in the case, and insisted their clients were innocent survivors who have been unjustly prosecuted.