More than 150 migrants reach Crete in a day in small boats from Libya

[Handout/Hellenic Coast Guard]

A total of much than 150 migrants person been rescued successful a time successful waters disconnected southern Crete oregon having conscionable reached there aft completing the agelong and unsafe Mediterranean Sea transition from bluish Africa, authorities said Tuesday.

The Coast Guard said the migrants crossed separately successful three small boats Monday, 1 of which reached the formation of Arvi carrying 36 men, a woman and a child.

One of the men was identified arsenic the idiosyncratic who had steered the vessel implicit from eastbound Libya, and was arrested pending charges of endangering the different passengers and assisting their amerciable introduction to Greece.

The different two boats were located up to 32 miles south of Crete, and their passengers – a total 109 men and 12 children – were picked up by a passing freighter and a patrol vessel from the European Union’s Frontex borderline agency, and then transferred to Crete.

Despite the region from Libya, which takes astir three days to screen successful a small boat, Crete has go the main single target for smugglers sending migrants to Greece. So acold this year much than 2,200 radical person reached the southern island, much than a third of the total 6,000 migrants to participate Greece illegally by onshore and sea.

In comparison, the eastbound Aegean Sea land of Lesvos, erstwhile the main migrant destination arsenic it lies a abbreviated region from the western shores of Turkey, has seen astir 800 arrivals since January 1, according to United Nations data.

In caller years, Greece’s Coast Guard, assisted by Frontex vessels, has drastically stepped up deterrence patrols successful the eastbound Aegean, contributing to the driblet successful arrivals there and the corresponding surge successful flows from Libya, a state that has been unstable for much than 15 years.