A paramedic holds a newborn boy at Mytilene port, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)
LESBOS — Authorities in Greece say a woman from Eritrea has given birth on an uninhabited rocky islet after traveling with other migrants from nearby Turkey.
A coast guard official said 29 adult Eritreans ‒ 24 men and five women ‒ were spotted Wednesday during a patrol near the eastern Greek island of Lesbos. One of the women had just given birth.
They were also rescued and taken to Lesbos, with the mother and baby receiving hospital treatment.
“They were spotted by a patrol and are all in good health,” the coast guard official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement hadn’t yet been released.
A migrant woman carries a newborn boy at Mytilene port, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)
“The mother and the baby are also in good health,” the official said.
The migrants were found on the islet of Barbalias, about three kilometers (two miles) east of Lesbos and around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Turkish coast. Local officials said the baby was a boy.
Lesbos was the busiest entry point into the European Union during the 2015-16 crisis when hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fled war in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
But Greece has steadily toughened its migration policies, and many leaving Turkey now take the longer and more dangerous route to Turkey.
Over the weekend, the coast guard rescued 108 migrants from a leaking and rudderless sailboat near the holiday island of Mykonos.
Separately Wednesday, a man believed to be a migrant was found dead in the trunk of a car in an artificial lake near the Greek-Turkish border. Border police officers had pursued the vehicle after the driver refused to stop for a highway inspection. Five other passengers, all also believed to be migrants who had entered the country illegally, and the driver were detained, police said.
A migrant woman lays inside an ambulance after she has given birth, at Mytilene port, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)Migrants sit on the deck of a coast guard vessel upon their arrival at Mytilene port, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)
ATHENS – Greece's answer to Turkey continuing to send F-16 fighters jets into Greek air space will be to file a demarche – a diplomatic complaint with Turkey every time although they will likely be ignored as they had been before.
FALMOUTH, MA – The police in Falmouth have identified the victim in an accident involving a car plunging into the ocean on February 20, NBC10 Boston reported.
PHILADELPHIA – The Federation of Hellenic Societies of Philadelphia and Greater Delaware Valley announced that the Evzones, the Presidential Guard of Greece will be participating in the Philadelphia Greek Independence Day Parade on March 20.
O oceanic you sing and sail
White on your body and yellow on your chimeneas
For you're tired of the filthy waters of the harbors
You who loved the distant Sporades
You who lifted the tallest flags
You who sail clear through the most dangerous caves
Hail to you who let yourself be charmed by the sirens
Hail to you for never having been afraid of the Symplegades
(Andreas Empeirikos)
What traveler has not been fascinated by the Greek islands, drawn by the Sirens’ song of a traveler’s dreams?
TNH and our video show ‘Mission’ marked the change of the season by transporting viewers into the heart of summer.
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