Greece rescued more than 500 migrants from a fishing vessel south of the country’s southernmost island of Gavdos early on Wednesday, authorities said.
The operation was coordinated by the Hellenic Coast Guard’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) and involved an open-sea patrol vessel, a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship, two aircraft from the EU border agency Frontex, and four passing ships.
The migrants were safely transported to the port of Sfakia on the island of Crete.
Authorities said nearly 2,000 people had arrived on Crete and Gavdos between Friday and Tuesday afternoon, amid a sharp increase in crossings from Libya.
The latest rescue came a day after the EU’s migration commissioner and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta were denied entry to eastern Libya, where they had planned talks on curbing irregular departures.
