Not less than 51 folks rescued as search operation continues off the island of Gavnos close to Crete.
Revealed On 14 Sep 2026
One individual has died, 25 are lacking and 51 folks have been rescued after a ship carrying migrants sank off a Greek island close to Crete, in accordance with the nation’s coastguard.
“Fifty-one had been picked up by two boats that had been within the space,” a coastguard spokesman stated on Monday.
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He stated survivors had reported that 77 folks had been on board when the boat went down close to the island of Gavdos.
Search and rescue efforts had been ongoing, with 4 ships, boats, Frontex plane and a coastguard helicopter working within the space, Greece’s public broadcaster ERT Information reported.
The 51 rescued folks had been on account of be delivered to Crete, “the place the prescribed procedures shall be adopted”, ERT reported.
After arriving in Crete, undocumented migrants usually face fast arrest and non permanent confinement earlier than being transferred to closed detention camps on the Greek mainland. Below Greek regulation, people are topic to prolonged administrative detention, extreme penalties and fast-track deportation.
Sturdy winds blowing by the world have been hampering the search operation, ERT stated.
Crete and Gavdos, about 320km (200 miles) from the Libyan coast, have turn into the main point of entry for asylum seekers in Greece.
In late August, Greece’s ANA information company revealed figures from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum that indicated that migrant arrivals within the nation fell from about 61,000 within the 12 months to August 2025 to 42,000 within the following 12 months – a decline of about 31 %.
Greece’s conservative authorities in July suspended all asylum claims for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa for 3 months, a transfer it argued helped deter crossings.
The ban handed in parliament amid a surge in asylum seekers reaching Crete and after talks with Libya’s Benghazi-based authorities to stem the circulation had been cancelled in July.
The federal government stays at odds with regional authorities in Crete over a plan to construct a everlasting transit facility on the island. It’s getting ready draft laws that may mandate imprisonment for folks whose asylum claims are denied and require ankle screens throughout a 30-day compliance interval earlier than deportation.
Authorities in Europe have tightened their immigration guidelines over current years as far-right, anti-immigrant political events have gained growing assist all through the continent.
Greece has been in discussions with Germany and several other different European Union nations on setting up “return hubs” outdoors the bloc for processing migrants’ claims.
