The Greek coast guard has confirmed that it rescued "more than 350 migrants" around 30 nautical miles south of the small Greek island of Gavdos late on Thursday (June 19).

According to the English version of Greek newspaper Ekathimerini, the fishing boat carrying the migrants was located initially by a Frontex vessel which in turn informed the Greek coast guard. Four passing commercial ships also helped in picking up the migrants and bringing them to the port of Paleochora, near Chania on the larger neighboring island of Crete, located in the south-eastern Mediterranean.

On its website, the Hellenic Coast Guard also reported locating 34 migrants (33 men and one woman) on a beach on Gavdos earlier on Thursday (June 19). According to a press release in Greek, and translated by Google, the migrants "were initially transferred to a temporary accommodation facility of the municipality of Gavdos and from there by passenger ferry to the port of Chora Sfakion, on Crete."

From the port, confirmed the coast guard, the migrants were taken to another temporary accommodation facility located in Agia Chania, where a preliminary investigation began.

At around noon on Thursday, according to a second Hellenic coast guard press release published on June 20, port authorities were informed about a "vessel with foreign passengers in a difficult position, in the sea around 19 nautical miles south of Gavdos."

The coast guard sent a patrol vessel to the spot and, with the help of a Frontex drone, they located a wooden dinghy with "foreign passengers." The 73 men on board were all collected safely and transported to Gavdos, where they were also later transferred to the larger neighboring island of Crete.

Arrest and detention

Another patrol boat, this time nearer the Turkish coast, located a speedboat with "foreign passengers moving at high speed from the Turkish coast to the southern coast of Agathonisi." According to the Greek coast guard, the officers on board their patrol boat used "light and sound signals" to immobilize the speedboat. The Greek coast guard officer picked up 18 migrants, five men, five women and eight minors on board. They were taken to the port of Alagari and handed over to police officers, to be transferred to the closed controlled structure on Samos.

The 23-year-old pilot was arrested and reportedly an Azerbaijani citizen, stated the Greek coast guard. He is being charged with the “trafficking of third country nationals,” as well as "illegal entry and exit from the country." The Samos port authorities are conducting an initial investigation and say they confiscated two mobile phones and destroyed the means of transport used.

Also on Thursday morning a boat carrying migrants was spotted in the sea off the area of Kalamata on the Greek mainland. On board were reportedly 26 migrants, 22 men, one woman and three minors. Two Sudanese nationals, one aged 16 and one aged 19 were identified by the others as the "traffickers" and arrested on charges of facilitating illegal entry into the country, stated the coast guard.

Libya route

The group told the authorities they had set off from the coast of Tobruk in Libya and had paid around 4,000 euros per person for their passage to Greece.

The journey from Libya towards southern Greek islands or the mainland, like Gavdos, Crete, or Kalamata, is one of the slightly newer migration routes to be exploited by smugglers. Many of those who reach Greece report having left from the coasts of eastern Libya, which is largely under the control of General Khalifa Haftar and various militias, not all of them under the control of the UN-recognized government in Tripoli, in western Libya.

One of the worst single migrant disasters in the Mediterranean, the shipwreck off Pylos, took place in mid-June 2023 and resulted in more than 600 people dying. According to survivors, the boat involved had also set off from the Libyan coasts before getting into difficulty off Greece.

Turkish accusations of Greek pushbacks

Also on Friday (June 20), the Turkish news agency Ilkha reported that the Turkish coast guard had rescued 44 migrants in two separate operations off the coasts of Marmaris and Datca in Mugla province, southwestern Turkey, over the past few days.

According to Ilkha, the migrants were found on two life rafts, one carrying 21 people and the other carrying 23 people. They said they had been pushed back by Greek forces. "During the rescue, a suspect accused of migrant smuggling was detained by the coast guard," reported Ilkha.

Two pictures posted by the coast guard also show the group of 21 migrants, picked up in the Mugla district, floating in two square life rafts. This is the group that the Turkish authorities claim was pushed back by Greece.

The Turkish authorities regularly accuse the Greek authorities of pushing migrants back into Turkish waters, an accusation the Greek authorities continually deny.

The news agency said that the Turkish authorities had not released any further details about the countries of origin of the migrants, but that the detained suspect remains in custody as investigations continue.

More migrants discovered near Izmir

In several other press releases, posted on June 19 and June 20, the Turkish coast guard said they had picked up 33 migrants, including one child, off the coast of Izmir on June 18. The migrants were drifting after their engine broke down, reported the Turkish coast guard, and they called for help from the Turkish coast guard.

The picture posted with the press release appears to show several other children or young people in the prow of the boat on which the migrants were traveling.

In the past, reports by NGOs have alleged that unidentifiable officers, often masked and dressed in black, but operating from Greece, have put migrants found in Greek waters, or even on land, back in life rafts like these and towed them to Turkish waters to be picked up by the Turkish authorities.

Also on June 18, the Turkish coast guard confirms they found an inflatable boat off the coast of Izmir and intercepted it with "20 irregular migrants on board." The Turkish coast guard said they were "apprehended."