The coast guard said it went to the aid on Sunday (February 25) of 114 migrants around 40 nautical miles from the island of Gavdos, south of Crete. There was no information about the nationalities of the passengers, who were taken to Crete.

Greek patrols near the island of Kos also encountered a speedboat which was carrying "a large number of passengers" and heading for the shore at speed without navigation lights. According to the coast guard, the boat made dangerous maneuvers, putting the passengers at risk, and failed to comply with the patrol's instructions.

"A chase ensued, the boat was stopped and the two pilots on board were arrested," the coast guard said in a press release.

Migrants rescued by cargo ship south of Crete

Another migrant rescue near Crete was reported by the coast guard last Friday, when a group of 85 people were picked up by a cargo ship about 93 kilometers south of the island. The engine on the migrants' boat had reportedly failed. 

The migrants, including 35 minors, were handed over to the coast guard and taken to Kalon Limenon in the island's capital Heraklion.

According to the coast guard, the migrants had set out from Tobruk in Libya on Thursday (February 22). They said they had paid around 3,700-4,600 euros each for a passage on the dinghy.

Two people on the boat were arrested and charged with illegal entry and facilitating illegal entry.

The number of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Greece has risen, with smugglers increasingly choosing the route from Tobruk to Crete, the German news agency dpa reports.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, between January 1 and February 18, 612 migrants reached Crete and Gavdos islands: all said they had set off from Tobruk.

Also read: Frontex report into Greek shipwreck suggests more deaths could have been prevented

Group rescued from isolated island

In further reports of migrant rescues in the Aegean, the Greek coast guard published a video on Sunday appearing to show a group being rescued from a small island, which it said was Barbalias islet, near Lesbos. The group of 42 people, spotted during a routine patrol, were taken to the Mavrouvouni camp on the main island of Lesbos, according to the coast guard statement.

Another video shows people – including small children and a baby – being helped onto a Greek rescue vessel from an inflatable dinghy. According to the coast guard, the boat carrying 25 migrants was discovered near Gavdos.

Conflicting accounts

The number of migrants arriving in Greece or attempting to reach the islands has seen a sharp increase, according to Aegean Boat Report, a group monitoring migrant activity and human rights in the region.

While the Greek coast guard regularly reports on its efforts to rescue the arrivals, activists say migrants are afraid of being found by the authorities and are contacting them instead to ask for assistance when they are in distress.

"Over the last four days Aegean Boat Report have been contacted by 15 groups arriving on Greek islands or in distress at sea in the North Aegean, almost 500 people," the organization wrote on X.

ABR added that two-thirds of the migrants attempting to reach the Aegean islands by boat are either stopped by the Turkish coast guard or pushed back by Greek authorities.

The NGO says it registered 35 illegal pushbacks of boats carried out by the Greek coast guard in the Aegean Sea in January. It claims 1,144 people were denied the right to seek asylum in Greece as they were forced back into Turkish waters in violation of their human rights.

Greece denies carrying out migrant pushbacks, which are banned under international and European law.

With dpa

Also read: Greek coast guard rescues migrants, accused of further pushbacks