Authorities said on Friday that nearly 140 migrants had reached Greek shores in the past 24 hours after a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, including one man who set off from North Africa who drowned off the southern island of Crete.
Greece, along with Spain and Italy, is a key point of entry for people from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union. To reach Greek shores, most make the dangerous voyage in fragile boats from neighboring Turkey or Libya.
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The Greek coast guard said Thursday that a merchant ship that had sent out a distress signal passed through waters about 95 miles south of Crete and rescued 34 men and three boys.
The Greek flag is photographed against a clear sky. (Nicholas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Another man on board the boat fell overboard and drowned, the coast guard said in a statement on Friday, citing other survivors and the captain. All survivors were taken to Crete, where they told authorities the boat had left eastern Libya on Tuesday.
Also on Thursday, authorities found 51 men, eight women and 19 children on a beach near Monemvasia in southeastern Greece. It is unclear where they started from, but the area is on a smuggling route from Turkey to Greece and Italy.
Authorities arrested 22 people in separate incidents on Thursday and Friday from a small island off the southeastern coast of Symi after the coast guard said they had paid smugglers to ferry them from neighboring Turkey.
Some 16,000 people have arrived in Greece so far this year, mostly by sea, with arrivals expected to exceed 48,000 in 2023.
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Spain has taken in more than 21,000 migrants and refugees so far this year, the most in the EU, according to UN data.
