Greece rescues more than 500 asylum seekers off coast of Crete 

Nearly 540 asylum seekers have been rescued from a fishing boat south of the island of Crete, Greece’s coastguard says.

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.

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.

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

In a separate incident on Thursday, the European Union’s border agency Frontex rescued 65 men and five women seeking refuge from two boats in distress off Gavdos, the Greek coastguard added.

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.

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

Many of these vessels have taken off from countries such as Libya.

Next June, the EU’s 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.

According to the European Council, assistance under the pact includes support from EU agencies, as well as EU funds.

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.

Human rights groups have criticised the pact, warning that it puts asylum seekers at risk and violates their rights.