Boat docks in Greece after migrant rescue
ATHENS: A fishing boat crammed with hundreds of migrants that lost steering and had been driting in the Mediterranean south of the Greek island of Crete has been successfully towed to port, Greek authorities said on Tuesday.
The exact number of people on board was not immediately clear as the passengers had not yet disembarked, the coast guard said. Passengers who had made a distress call overnight told Greek authorities the boat was carrying about 400-500 people.
The coast guard launched a major rescue operation ater receiving the distress call, which said the vessel had lost steering and was driting in rough seas off the coast of southeastern Crete.
A Greek navy frigate, a tanker, two cargo ships and two Italian fishing vessels participated in the rescue operation but were unable to transfer passengers from the vessel due to the bad weather.
The fishing boat was towed to the port of Palaiochora in southeastern Crete, where it arrived in the early aternoon. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or missing people.
It was not immediately known where the boat carrying the migrants had set sail from, what its intended destination was or what the nationalities of those on board were.
Greek news websites suggested those rescued on Tuesday had sailed from Libya.
Tens of thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa try to make their way into the European Union each year via perilous sea journeys, with most atempting to reach Greece from neighboring Turkey or taking a longer route to Italy.
Recently, all migrants on board a rescue ship turned back by Italy disembarked in France. The Ocean Viking, run by SOS Mediterranee, had picked up more than 230 migrants at sea near the Libyan coast before spending weeks seeking a port to accept them.
France allowed the boat to dock at the southern port of Toulon on Friday ater Rome denied it access.
Of the 189 migrants, 23 are women and 13 minors.
Norway’s said that the country had taken in 20 of the migrants rescued by the Ocean Viking NGO from France.
Despite not being an EU member, Norway’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it would accept 20 of the migrants.