More than 600 migrants reached Crete within a 24-hour period at the weekend, highlighting a shift in Mediterranean smuggling routes toward the island and nearby Gavdos despite an overall decline in arrivals across Greece.
Greek port authorities, with support from the EU border agency Frontex, collected 545 migrants off the coast of Gavdos and transferred them to Crete. During the same night, the Coast Guard carried out two additional operations, locating 27 people in a dinghy southeast of Kales Limeni and 35 others near Psari Forada in the municipality of Viannos.
Greek officials said smugglers operating from Libya are increasingly targeting Crete and Gavdos because of favourable weather conditions and their proximity to North Africa. By the end of October, Greece recorded 39,495 illegal border crossings, marking an 18% drop compared with the same period in 2024. Similar trends were seen elsewhere, with arrivals in Italy stabilising and Spain registering a sharp decline attributed to tighter controls and increased surveillance.
Authorities believe these measures are pushing smuggling networks to adjust routes rather than reducing migration pressures altogether. The concentration of arrivals on Crete underscores Greece’s ongoing struggle to manage migration flows, a challenge that has persisted since the large-scale arrivals of 2015.
Crete. Unsplash
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