January 13, 2022 - 5:19
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) โ Greek authorities have found the body of a woman believed to be the wife of an Iranian man who drowned while crossing a rain-swollen stream as the couple and several other migrants walked through the hills of the northern Greece to avoid the police. patrols
The fire department said Thursday that the body was recovered from a stream in the northern Greek province of Serres. The 24-year-old Iranian woman had been missing since Wednesday, when the body of a 35-year-old Iranian man was recovered.
Police said the migrants had entered Greece illegally from Turkey and are believed to have been herded into the area by smugglers who left them to reach the northern city of Thessaloniki. It was unclear how many people had been in the group, which kept going after the accident.
The man's body was found after rescuers responded to an emergency call from another Iranian man, the woman's 22-year-old brother, who had been with the group and stayed behind to help the two.
Greece has been hit by severe storms and gale-force winds, while snow has affected much of northern and central Greece, with temperatures approaching freezing.
Greece is a major entry point for people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union. Most enter from neighboring Turkey, either by crossing the northeastern land border or being transported by smuggling boats to islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, near the Turkish coast.
Recently, smuggling gangs have even been packing migrants onto yachts heading from Turkey to Italy. Dozens of migrants were killed in a series of accidents in the central Aegean last month.
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News by ยฉ The Associated Press, 2022
