Kythera

Also late Wednesday, hundreds of miles away from Kythera, 18 migrants drowned when their small boat sunk off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos.

Earlier this month, about 240 people arrived on the southern island of Kythera on three sailboats that had also set sail from Turkey and had been aiming directly for Italy.

The boat, a sailing catamaran, was located in the early hours of Thursday off Kythera’s western coastline.

Some 170 people, the vast majority from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, had arrived to Kythera on another two sailing boats on Wednesday.

Hours later, another vessel carrying 73 people — 62 Iraqis, nine Iranians and two Russians — arrived in a small southern harbor of Kythera, escorted by the coast guard, authorities said.