The Greek and Turkish coast guards have been busy in the waters of the southern Mediterranean and the Aegean over the weekend. Greek authorities rescued at least 165 migrants, and the Turkish authorities rescued and apprehended more than 140 over the last few days. Some of the rescues are detailed by the coast guards, others are rounded up in local press reports.
At least 165 migrants were brought ashore in three separate incidents in the southern Mediterranean over the weekend, the English version of the Greek newspaper Ekathimerini reports. Accounts of these incidents have not yet been published on the Greek Coast Guard website.
However, according to Ekathimerini, two of the incidents occurred south of the small Greek island of Gavdos, not far from Crete. Here, 126 migrants were picked up in total.
In one incident, an unspecified number of migrants were picked up by a tanker with a Maltese flag and transported with the assistance of the coast guard to the port of Gavdos, reported Ekathimerini on Monday (August 18).
A second operation was then carried out by the Hellenic coast guard and a Frontex vessel, bringing in the remainder of the 126.
In a third incident, according to Ekathimerini, at least 39 migrants were on board a dinghy about 58 nautical miles south of Kalamata, in mainland Greece and brought to shore. The Greek coast guard published an account of this rescue on August 18. They confirmed the number of migrants and the location of the boat. They added that preliminary investigations are being carried out by the port authorities in Kalamata.
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More arrivals on Crete
Earlier in the weekend, on Saturday (August 16), the Greek Coast Guard did note they had coordinated a joint search and rescue operation after discovering a sailing vessel with migrants on board about 20 nautical miles south of Thira, and therefore north of Crete.
Three coast guard vessels, as well as a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, went to the area to assist the migrants, bringing 56 migrants, 39 men, five women and 12 minors to safety and taking them to Crete’s Heraklion port.
The group was taken to temporary accommodation near the port, stated a press release from the coast guard. According to testimonies from the migrants on board, the group had set off from the Marmaris region of Turkey on August 13, hoping to reach Italy. They said they had paid around 8,000 euros each for their journey.
The Greek authorities arrested a 35-year-old Georgian citizen suspected of trying to facilitate illegal entry into the country. The Greek Coast Guard said the man had been identified by the other migrants as their smuggler.
A day before, a 19-year-old Sudanese national had been arrested on suspicion of attempting to facilitate illegal entry into the country after a group of 35 migrants was located southeast of Gavdos and brought to shore in Chania on the island of Crete.
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Arrivals on Gavdos
Earlier in the summer, the Greek authorities informed the EU that they would be suspending the possibility of asking for asylum if arriving from North Africa to slow the increase in the number of migrants attempting to cross from North Africa, mostly from eastern Libya, towards Greece.
Those who did arrive were detained. A few weeks after that announcement, the Greek authorities reported a drop in the number of arrivals on Gavdos and Crete, at least from North Africa. This past weekend seems to be contrary to that trend.
According to data from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, last updated on August 10, more than 10,688 migrants had arrived in Crete since the beginning of the year. And 23,900 migrants had arrived by sea overall. 26,788 migrants entered Greece between January 1 and August 10 via both sea and land borders.
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Ongoing searches for missing in Turkey
Meanwhile, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Turkish authorities picked up around 140 migrants in several operations off the western city of Izmir over the weekend.
By consulting the Turkish Coast Guard’s website, a number of rescues took place since August 14, many of them in the Izmir area.
The Turkish Coast Guard stated that search and rescue operations are still ongoing in the area after it was reported in the early hours of August 18 that three migrants had fallen into the sea from an inflatable boat carrying irregular migrants. A call for help from the boat meant the Turkish authorities mobilized a helicopter, an unmanned aerial vehicle, one ship and five boats to the scene.
Two migrants were rescued alive, stated the Turkish coast guard on August 18, but the bodies of four migrants were found "lifeless."
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Interceptions and rescues by Turkish authorities
On August 16 and 17, stated the Turkish Coast Guard, 35 irregular migrants were rescued and four irregular migrants, along with three children, were stopped on land. The 35 people were reported to have come from Sudan originally and the group of seven is reported to be made up of Afghan nationals.
Late in the evening on August 15, the Turkish coast guard also reported that they apprehended an inflatable rubber boat carrying 42 irregular migrants. The boat was "underway" when it was "intercepted" by the Turkish authorities, stated the press release from the Turkish Coast Guard Command, under Turkey’s Ministry of the Interior.
Also on August 16, the Turkish coast guard published a picture of a sailing yacht, which they said had been on its way to Italy from the Turkish Izmir province with 65 irregular migrants on board, as well as 50 children. The Turkish authorities said there were also two migrant smuggling suspects on board when they apprehended the boat.
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Turkey accuses Greece of pushbacks, once again
On August 14, the Turkish authorities took pictures of a group of 66 migrants and 20 children floating in the Aegean Sea in the early morning. The migrants, they said, were "pushed back into Turkish territorial waters by Greek assets" and were rescued by Turkish patrol boats, along with two migrant smuggling suspects.
The Greek authorities regularly deny carrying out these kinds of pushbacks.
Around an hour later that day, the Turkish authorities also said they came across an inflatable boat with around 36 migrants and six children on board. They said they "apprehended" the migrants and took them back to Turkey.