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The Hellenic Coast Guard retrieved 13 bodies and 18 survivors from a migrant boat found adrift about 15 nautical miles off the port of Kaloi Limenes on the southern coast of Crete early on November 9, according to a statement from the authority. A Morocco-flagged container ship first spotted the vessel and assisted in the initial rescue before Greek personnel took over, Reuters reported. One of the survivors died after being transported to a local health center, pushing the toll from that boat to 14, while the other survivors including a toddler were moved to a migrant reception facility on the island.
A local coast guard official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity described the condition of those pulled from the boat. “We found them shivering from the cold,” the official said. Greek authorities indicated the vessel had likely been at sea for several days as strong winds prevented it from reaching shore, though the precise cause of the deaths remained under investigation, according to an Associated Press dispatch. A photograph distributed by Reuters showed emergency workers carrying a body wrapped in a black bag ashore at the port of Agia Galini.
The Greek coast guard reported locating three additional boats in the same waters south of Crete on November 9, with more than 180 migrants aboard those vessels, Al Jazeera reported. Frontex, the European Union border agency, deployed aircraft and a drone to help pinpoint the positions before its vessels transferred the people to ports on the island’s southern coast. Those rescues occurred alongside the main incident and brought the total number of people assisted in the area to well over 200 for the day.
Separately on November 8, coast guard crews recovered eight bodies from another boat carrying Sudanese migrants and rescued 28 survivors while two others remained missing after falling overboard during a storm, UPI said in its account citing the authority. Survivors from that vessel told officials they had departed from Libya days earlier and paid between $1,870 and $2,493 each for the journey. The weather had forced the suspension of recovery efforts until conditions improved, the coast guard explained.
Arrivals on Crete have climbed sharply this year despite a broader regional decline in irregular migration, according to data compiled by the UN refugee agency UNHCR and cited by dpa. More than 22,500 people reached the island between January and early November 2026, exceeding the full-year total of roughly 20,200 recorded in 2025. Most of those arriving via this Libya-to-Crete route have come from Sudan and Bangladesh, the UNHCR assessment found.
Overall irregular crossings into Greece dropped 23 percent and asylum applications fell 19 percent in the 12 months through June 2026 compared with the prior period, a European Commission report released last week showed. Yet Crete itself experienced a 105 percent increase in arrivals to around 21,000 during that time, placing disproportionate pressure on local resources, the Commission assessment noted. Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris told eKathimerini that Libyan authorities had ceased cooperation, a shift he linked to a maritime memorandum between Turkey and Libya.
