ATHENS: Greece’s Coast Guard rescued about 545 migrants from a fishing boat off Europe’s southernmost island of ​Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.
The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. ‌They are all ‌well and are ‌being ⁠taken ​to ‌the port of Agia Galini on the nearby island of Crete, it added.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the ⁠Middle East and Africa landed on its shores ‌before moving on to ‍other European countries, mainly ‍Germany.
Flows have ebbed since then, ‍but both Crete and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise in migrant ​boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and ⁠deadly accidents remain common along that route.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected ‌asylum seekers will be a priority.