A boat had sent a distress signal on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
MO12345LEMONDE
A rescue operation was underway Tuesday November 22 off the Greek island of Crete after a boat carrying up to 500 migrants had sent a distress signal on the night of Monday to Tuesday, announced the Greek coast guards. “We can see the boat. It is drifting. There are a large number of people on board,” said a spokesperson for Coast Guards at the France-Presse (AFP) agency, adding that It would be 400 to 500 people, according to the distress appeal received by the authorities.
The operation was made difficult due to the important winds that blow in this area located southwest of Crete, the largest island in Greece.
Two Cargos, an oil tanker and two Italian fishing boats, were nearby to assist, reported the coast guards.
a longer and more perilous road
Due to the strengthening of patrols in the Aegean Sea of the Greek coast guards and the European border surveillance agency (Frontex), migrant smugglers now take a longer and more perilous road, south of Crete , to enter the European Union.
But human dramas are multiplying due to the risks taken by migrants, which rise aboard makeshift boats on a stormy, even unleashed sea, in autumn and winter.
On October 11, two shipwrecks off the islands of Lesbos and Cythera had caused the death of at least thirty people.
According to data from the International Organization for Migration (OIM), 299 people have perished or have been missing in the eastern Mediterranean since the beginning of 2022, against 111 in total last year.
Greece, Italy and Spain are among the main countries of arrival for migrants from Africa and the Middle East wishing to win the European Union.