More than 600 migrants were rescued overnight and into Friday morning from two overcrowded wooden fishing vessels found adrift off the southernmost part of Greece, the Greek coast guard has said.
The first vessel, carrying 352 people, was located around 55 kilometres (35 miles) south of Gavdos, a small Greek island.
The passengers were rescued by a vessel from the EU’s border agency Frontex, supported by a coast guard patrol boat and four additional ships.
A further 278 people were discovered on a second boat approximately 90 kilometres (60 miles) south of Crete.
Those aboard were transferred onto a passing Portuguese-flagged cargo ship.
In both instances, the migrants were taken to Crete for processing. The authorities have not yet disclosed the nationalities of the rescued individuals.
Two additional migrant boats were located in the same parts of the Mediterranean on Thursday. One was discovered carrying 73 men south of Gavdos, while the other, found near Crete’s southern coast, had 26 people on board, including a woman and three children.
Passengers from the smaller of these two vessels said they had departed from Tobruk, Libya, the night before, each reportedly paying smugglers €4,000 for the perilous journey, according to the Greek coast guard.
Two Sudanese teenagers, aged 16 and 19, were arrested on suspicion of migrant trafficking after passengers identified them as the boat’s operators.
Greece continues to be a key entry point to the EU for people escaping conflict and hardship in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Arrivals surged last year, with over 60,000 migrants landing in Greece — the majority by sea — compared to around 48,000 in 2023, according to UN refugee agency data.
By mid-June 2025, Greece had recorded 16,290 arrivals, over 14,600 of which were by sea.
With Greek authorities stepping up patrols along the eastern maritime border with Turkey, traffickers appear to be increasingly choosing the longer and more dangerous route across the Mediterranean from North Africa, using larger boats capable of carrying more people.
