Greek coastguard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift

ATHENS, GREECE - Greek coastguards were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.

The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometres) southwest of the island.

Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.

A Greek coastguard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that "15 people fell in the water" after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.

At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.

The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.

The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.

It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coastguard and the European Union border agency Frontex.

Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.

In Brussels, the EU's 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to "return hubs" outside the bloc.

The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year -- more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.

Greece's conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.