Near the Greek island Crete A further 131 migrants were rescued. A total of 840 people have been rescued in the region over the past five days, a spokesman for the port police told the AFP news agency. The people rescued this morning were on board a fishing boat about 14 nautical miles south of the island of Gavdos, which is near Crete.
The migrants were taken to Gavdos. The Greek authorities initially did not provide any information about their nationalities.
Numerous migrants regularly try to reach the Greek islands and thus the EU from Turkey or Libya. The crossings are dangerous, also because people often travel in boats that are not suitable for this. At the beginning of December, a refugee boat capsized off the coast of Crete, killing 17 people. 15 more people have been missing since then.
European Court of Human Rights found pushback system
In recent years, the Greek authorities have been repeatedly criticized for illegal practices. In July, the European Court of Human Rights provided enough evidence for a so-called Pushback system in the country. This means that refugees are pushed back at borders without having the chance to have their need for protection individually assessed. Greece denies that it carries out such pushbacks systematically. However, the government restricted this in the summer Processing of asylum applications.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 16,770 asylum seekers have reached the EU via Crete since the beginning of the year. Recently the number of asylum seekers has fallen. According to the European Parliament, a total of 996,805 asylum applications were made in 2024, 13.1 percent fewer than in 2023.
