Greek authorities reported that a series of migrant boat incidents off Crete’s southern coast left 20 people dead and 133 rescued late Monday, the latest operation involving a container ship that spotted a distressed boat 15 nautical miles (about 28 km) southeast of Kaloi Limenes. The Greek Coast Guard later rescued 18 survivors and recovered 12 bodies, but the identities of the deceased and the circumstances of their deaths were not yet known, ERT said.
Earlier this week, Frontex vessels located and rescued two boats carrying about 47 and 40 migrants, taking all passengers to Crete’s southern ports, ERT confirmed. Those operations were part of a broader emergency that followed a Saturday incident in which 28 Sudanese migrants were rescued and one body recovered, and where seven more bodies were later found inside the boat after severe weather hampered initial recovery efforts.
The incidents come amid a sharp rise in migrant arrivals on Crete. The European Commission’s 2026 Annual Asylum and Migration Report noted a 23 percent fall in illegal border crossings into Greece between July 2025 and June 2026, while arrivals on Crete surged by 105 percent to roughly 21,000, nearly half of all arrivals in Greece. Most migrants on the Eastern Mediterranean route come from Libya and Turkey, the report said.
