Bangladeshi evacuees hold a banner asking for help to return home, after crossing into Tunisia to flee violence in Libya at the border crossing of Ras Jdir
An anti-Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi rebel, sits behind his anti-aircraft machine gun after the capture the oil town of Ras Lanouf, in eastern Libya, Saturday, March 5, 2011. (AP / Hussein Malla)
ATHENS, March 6 (Reuters) - At least three Bangladeshi evacuees from insurrection-hit Libya drowned in Greek waters while trying to swim to shore from a ship already moored in port, the Greek coastguard said on Sunday.
The incident happened in the port of Souda at the island of Crete. Another 16 people were missing and Greek coastguards were searching for them.
A total 46 evacuees used a rope to descend from the ship which had already moored at the port to enter Greece as clandestines, a Maritime Affairs ministry spokeswoman said, probably to avoid being sent back to their home country.
The victims were from Bangladesh.
The "Ionian King," a ferry, was carrying a total of 1,288 evacuees from Libya.
The unrest in northern Africa has heightened worries about a wave of illegal immigration into Europe. Thousands of workers from countries such as Vietnam and China have been evacuated from Libya, many of them on Greek ships. (Reporting by Harry Papachristou; editing Philippa Fletcher)
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