File photo of migrants reaching Crete.
A total 366 migrants in four boats that had set off from north Africa were rescued off the southern island of Crete Tuesday, the Coast Guard said, bringing up to about 15,000 the nationwide number of arrivals so far this year.
The largest group numbered 192 people, including women and children, who were spotted by a drone operated by the European Union’s Frontex border agency some 20 miles south of Crete.
The island has become a key entry point to Greece for people from the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in Europe, who travel to Libya to be smuggled across the Mediterranean Sea by criminal groups based around the eastern town of Tobruk.
From Greece, most seek to move on towards Europe’s prosperous heartland.
