United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR. He said the ship had 80 people on board when it began its journey to Italy from Antalya, where it is located.
UNHCR said "up to 50 people are missing."
The Greek Coast Guard has so far rescued 29 people from the waters between Rhodes and Crete. are all men. Greek authorities told local media that those rescued were from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.
The boat sank 38 nautical miles south of Rhodes en route to Italy, according to local media reports.
High winds and rough seas are complicating a search and rescue operation involving an Air Force helicopter, two naval vessels, a Coast Guard ship and three merchant ships.
This year alone, UNHCR said he had killed more than 60 people in the eastern Mediterranean. According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) data, 111 people died in the eastern Mediterranean last year.
A shipwreck in the Aegean Sea claimed eight of her lives off the island of Mykonos on June 19, according to IOM.
Meanwhile, Giannis Plakiotakis, Minister for Shipping and Islands Policy of Greece, said in a statement, "Protecting human life is a matter of daily concern, It's our absolute priority: over the past two years, we've carried out 145 search and rescue operations, saving more than 6,000 people."
He said, "Search continues to be diligent. It is being done,” he added.
According to UNHCR, 70,325 migrants reached Europe, "of which 65,548 were reported in the Mediterranean".
Since the beginning of the year, Italy has had the highest number of arrivals with 43,740, followed by Spain with nearly 17,000 and Greece and Cyprus with 7,261 and 2,268 respectively.
This is a steep decline compared to his official UNHCR data over the past few years.
There were 123,300 arrivals last year and 95,800 in 2020, with fewer arrivals this year than in previous years.
According to the Refugee Agency, 123,700 people crossed the Mediterranean in 2019 and 141,500 in 2018.
