In Greece, more than four hundred migrants have been rescued off the island of Crete

A ship with hundreds of migrants on board, which sounded a distress signal at sea on the night of Monday, November 21 to Tuesday, November 22, has docked in a port on the Greek island of Crete. those people They were towed to port, not yet unloaded.This was announced by Agence France-Presse, a spokesman for the Greek Coast Guard.

According to the public channel ERT, there were four hundred and thirty people on board, before the boat was towed by a fishing boat to the port of Paleochora, west of Crete. A Coast Guard spokeswoman simply stated, Four hundred and five hundred people.. No indication was made of their nationality. Pictures from ERT showed mainly men on the deck of a crumbling and rusting boat.

The coast guard was alerted by a distress call shortly after midnight as strong winds blew into this area in the far southwest of Crete, Greece’s largest island. They said two cargo ships, an oil tanker and two Italian fishing boats were nearby to provide assistance.

Longer and more dangerous road

Due to increased patrols by the Greek coast guard and the European border control agency Frontex in the eastern Aegean, migrant smugglers now take a longer and more dangerous route south of Crete to enter the EU.

Eighty percent of Turkish flows go directly to Italy.Greek Immigration Minister Notis Mitarashi told private Sky TV last week.

On October 11, at least thirty people died in two shipwrecks off the islands of Lesbos and Kythira. During the recent shipwreck, which claimed the lives of at least eight people, rescuers lifted dozens of survivors, mostly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, who were stranded at the foot of a cliff.

In early November, more than 21 people died and dozens were missing in the wrecks of two synchronized ships off the islands of Samos and Euboea.