{"id":459336,"date":"2025-12-20T05:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459336\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T05:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:14:15","slug":"greece-rescues-more-than-500-asylum-seekers-off-coast-of-crete-migration-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459336\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece rescues more than 500 asylum seekers off coast of Crete | Migration News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greek coastguard says nearly 540 people will have their asylum claims processed after rescue south of the island.<\/p>\n

Published On 19 Dec 202519 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

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Nearly 540 asylum seekers have been rescued from a fishing boat south of the island of Crete, Greece\u2019s coastguard says.<\/p>\n

The people were found some 16 nautical miles (29.6km) off Gavdos during a Greek search operation on Friday, the coastguard said in a statement, without specifying where the boat had set sail from.<\/p>\n

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A coastguard spokesperson told the AFP news agency that the rescued asylum seekers were from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

They were taken to the Cretan city of Rethymno, the spokesperson said, and after undergoing health checks, their asylum claims will be processed.<\/p>\n

In a separate incident on Thursday, the European Union\u2019s border agency Frontex rescued 65 men and five women seeking refuge from two boats in distress off Gavdos, the Greek coastguard added.<\/p>\n

\"AsylumAsylum seekers sit outside their temporary shelter in the town of Rethymno, on the island of Crete, Greece [Stefanos Rapanis\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Greece was on the front line of a surge in migration in 2015 and 2016, which saw more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa land on its shores in search of protection, before moving on to other European countries, including Germany.<\/p>\n

While the number of asylum seekers trying to reach Greece by boat has decreased since then, both Crete and Gavdos \u2013 the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast \u2013 have seen a steep rise in asylum boats.<\/p>\n

Many of these vessels have taken off from countries such as Libya.<\/p>\n

Next June, the EU\u2019s new migration and asylum pact will enter into force, and Greece, along with Cyprus, Spain and Italy, will be eligible for help from other EU nations in dealing with the pressures that stem from increased migration.<\/p>\n

According to the European Council<\/a>, assistance under the pact includes support from EU agencies, as well as EU funds.<\/p>\n

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said that deporting asylum seekers whose protection claims are rejected will be a priority for his centre-right government under the new pact.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups have criticised the pact, warning that it puts asylum seekers at risk and violates their rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greek coastguard says nearly 540 people will have their asylum claims processed after rescue south of the island.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[440,24918,118,12489,50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-459336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-greece","10":"tag-human-rights","11":"tag-migration","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115750193987702968","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}