On Aug. 13, 2015, migrants on a dinghy were captured in a photo arriving at the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, after crossing from Turkey (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo).
Tragically, on Wednesday, two people drowned when an overloaded boat carrying nearly 30 migrants sunk off Greece’s eastern Aegean Sea island of Kos. According to the Greek coast guard, 24 people were rescued from the scene and a man and a woman were found dead, leaving one person still missing. Several vessels and two aircraft were sent to search for other potential survivors.
The boat was detected by a thermal camera as it approached Kos, and a patrol vessel dispatched to investigate found an “overloaded polyester speedboat in dire straits, letting in water, which then capsized.” The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately known.
The boat sank off Kos’ eastern coast, and is believed to have set off from the nearby Turkish coast. Thousands of migrants—mostly from the Middle East and Africa—attempt to reach the eastern Greek islands from Turkey every year.