Sunday, March 6, 2011

Three Bangladeshis fleeing Libya drown in Greek waters
(AFP) – 
ATHENS — Three Bangladeshi nationals died on the southern Greek island of Crete on Sunday when they fled from a ship that was evacuating them from Libya, the merchant marine said.
The Greek coastguard retrieved the bodies of two men who drowned at sea, while the third person died en route to a hospital, according to a statement from the merchant marine.
"Forty-nine people left the ship. They used a rope to climb down," a merchant marine official told AFP.
Of the 38 men that have been located so far, most of them have been transferred to a hospital at nearby Chania, according to the Merchant Marine.
The search operation to find the 11 remaining people, some of them believed to have swum to shore, will resume at first light.
The Cypriot-flagged ship Ionian King was evacuating 1,280 people from Libya, most of them Bangladeshi nationals, said the merchant marine ministry.
The reason why the 49 passengers disembarked secretly when the ship anchored at Souda Bay was not known, but speculation was rife that they did not carry legal documents and were afraid they would be deported to Bangladesh.
The South Korean embassy in Athens expressed its condolences for the deceased since all three were employed in Libya by Daewoo Engineering & Construction Company, the semi-state Athens News Agency reported.
Souda Bay is also the location of a US naval base where on Friday two US warships, the USS Kearsage and the USS Ponce, dropped anchor carrying marines and equipment to help evacuate people fleeing Libya.
Three Greek navy vessels have also been patrolling the Mediterranean Sea between Crete and Libya since last week to protect Greek ships participating in the evacuation of foreign nationals.
Thousands of people fleeing the bloodshed in revolt-hit Libya have landed on the Greek island of Crete in recent days by sea before being airlifted home.
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