Dozens of migrants have reached Greek shores in small boats from Turkey and the north African coast, authorities said Monday, as fair weather improved sailing conditions.
The Coast Guard said in a statement that 25 men and four women disembarked from a speedboat that defied orders from a patrol boat to stop and entered Greek waters at high speed before dawn Sunday, making for the island of Leros in the southeastern Aegean Sea.
One of the men, a 33-year-old Azeri, was arrested on suspicion of steering the small vessel to Leros on behalf of a Turkish smuggling ring after other passengers identified him as having been in command. He faced charges including human trafficking and endangering the lives of his passengers at sea.
Also Sunday, Coast Guards near the town of Ierapetra on southeastern Crete picked up 33 men and one woman who had just landed on a small boat that crossed the Mediterranean Sea from eastern Libya.
More than 9,300 people have entered Greece illegally by land and sea so far this year, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, seeking a better life in Europe. The overwhelming majority then continue their clandestine trip onwards to the continent’s prosperous heartland.
