ATHENS, Greece (AP) — More than 230 migrants reached Greece in small boats over the past two days, including a rare case of a crossing from north Africa to Greece’s southern mainland, authorities said Friday.
The arrivals come as Greece’s government braces for a potential increase — that so far hasn’t materialized — in migratory flows due to the fighting in the Middle East.
Nearly half the arrivals announced Friday were people who took a new route from eastern Libya that has emerged this year and is longer and riskier than the more common crossing from Turkey.
The coast guard said 75 migrants who had departed from eastern Libya were rescued Friday from a crippled boat south of the island of Crete. They were picked up in the Mediterranean Sea by a merchant ship after issuing a distress call.
More than 3,500 migrants have made the crossing to Crete so far this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
The coast guard said Friday that 38 people who had left Benghazi in eastern Libya were found in southern mainland Greece — a slightly more distant destination than Crete. It was not immediately clear whether that signified a new variation in the route from Libya or a navigational error.
They were found Thursday, after spending two days crossing the Mediterranean. Two Egyptians among them were arrested on suspicion of belonging to a smuggling gang that had organized the passage, charging each migrant up to 4,500 euros ($4,900).
Another 126 people were found on Wednesday and Thursday on the eastern Aegean Sea islands of Tilos and Symi, after making the short crossing in small boats from the nearby Turkish coast.
Tens of thousands of people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia enter Greece every year, fleeing hardship or poverty and seeking a better life in Europe.
According to UNHCR data, more than 42,000 have arrived so far this year, mostly in small boats from Turkey. The figure for the whole of 2023 was 48,000.
The crossing from Libya takes at least two days, while a fast smuggling boat from Turkey can reach Greece’s eastern islands in well under an hour, provided it can dodge frequent coast guard patrols.
Italy remains the main European destination for illegal migration, with more than 51,000 arrivals so far, and is followed by Spain.
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