More than 300 migrants rescued off Crete: Greek officials

Greek authorities person rescued implicit 300 migrants coming chiefly from Bangladesh, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan implicit the past two days, officials said Tuesday.

Nearly fractional of them were rescued connected Monday disconnected the land of Crete, the seashore defender said, adding that they were travelling connected astatine slightest three makeshift vessels.

Search operations continued connected Tuesday contempt strong winds successful the area, they said.

A seashore defender authoritative said the migrants were being held by Cretan constabulary and would beryllium transferred to reception centres connected the Greek mainland.

Crete has go the main gateway for asylum seekers arriving chiefly from Tobruk successful eastbound Libya, a perilous crossing.

At the extremity of March, 22 radical died while adrift successful the Mediterranean aft leaving from Libya and their bodies were thrown overboard, according to survivors who were rescued disconnected Crete.

Due to the summation successful migrant arrivals successful Crete during the summertime tourist play past year, Greece suspended the asylum exertion process for three months, drafting disapproval from the UN and rights bodies.

Greece’s blimpish authorities strongly supports moves by the European Union to ace down connected amerciable migration, including the mounting up of the so-called “return hubs” extracurricular the bloc to location failed asylum seekers.

Source: AFP