Nearly 600 migrants reached Greek shores in small boats in a single day, most of them crossing the Mediterranean from north Africa to Crete, authorities said on Tuesday, Kathimerini reported.
The Hellenic Coast Guard said 522 people were picked up on Monday off beaches on Crete or the islet of Gavdos further south, or from crippled boats at sea on their way there.
Most were men. There were 31 women and 31 children among them.
Read more: 14-Year-Old Sudanese Migrant Smuggler Arrested in Crete
In the eastern Aegean, another 61 migrants reached the islets of Psara and Kalolimnos after crossing from the nearby Turkish coast in small boats provided by smuggling rings.
Alleged smugglers arrested
Cretaone reported that rescues took place in about ten separate incidents, at Gavdos, Ierapetra, Kali Limenes, Arvi in Viannos and Paleochora, with women, minors and two babies among those rescued. It put the total picked up over 24 hours at 546.
Those rescued were taken to temporary reception sites in Heraklion, Chania and Ierapetra, Cretaone said. In one case, 42 men found in a remote area of Gavdos were picked up by a Frontex vessel and later moved to a temporary site at Agyia, near Chania.
According to the same report, three people were arrested as alleged smugglers after being identified by other passengers: two 17-year-olds from South Sudan and a 26-year-old from Sudan. They are accused of bringing migrants from Tobruk in Libya for payment.
Pressure on reception sites
Arrivals continued into Tuesday. Crete’s Nea TV reported that four boats carrying a total of 211 people were found south of Gavdos on Monday night, while 53 people were found off Kali Limenes on Monday night and 64, including a baby, early on Tuesday.
Another boat carrying 49 people was found 20 nautical miles south-east of Ierapetra, Nea TV said.
The broadcaster described conditions at the island’s temporary reception sites as stifling. Those rescued off Kali Limenes were taken to the old refrigeration building at the port of Heraklion.
Greece is a main gateway into the European Union for people from the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent who pay smuggling rings to enter the country, hoping to move on to wealthier parts of Europe.
The government has said it expects arrivals to ease as the weather worsens in the coming weeks, Kathimerini reported.
READ MORE: Greek Authorities Rescue Nearly 100 Migrants off Crete
READ MORE: Gavdos Migrant Rescue Takes Day’s Total Off Crete Past 100
READ MORE: Greece Presses Bangladesh to Curb Migrant Routes Through Libya and Egypt
Featured image: Sarakiniko beach on Gavdos, south of Crete. Photo: Varvac / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
