Twenty-two migrants die off Greek coast after six days at sea

Poor weather and a lack of food and water contributed to the deaths, the Greek coastguard says.

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Twenty-six survivors, including a woman and a child, were rescued by a European border agency vessel on Friday. Two of them were taken to hospital in Heraklion on the island of Crete.

The migrant boat had left the port of Tobruk in eastern Libya on 21 March, news agency AFP reported, citing a coastguard spokesperson. Poor weather and a lack of food and water contributed to the deaths, the coastguard said.

Greece, along with Italy, receives a large number of undocumented migrants via the Mediterranean, often from nearby Turkey and northern Africa.

Many of these crossings occur in the summer, when there is less likely to be bad weather.