(Ierapetra) A cargo ship carrying 400 migrants was rescued Friday afternoon by the Greek coast guard, according to their statement.
The ship which had an engine problem and had issued a warning signal had left the Turkish coast before finding itself stranded in the south-east of the island of Crete according to the Greek coast guard.
The 400 passengers are safe and sound according to the port police.
As of Friday evening, Greek authorities had yet to decide whether the migrants would be transported to the Greek mainland or whether they would stay in Crete.
According to the Greek coast guard, “this operation is one of the largest ever carried out in this area of the eastern Mediterranean”.
On Tuesday, four migrants drowned off the Greek island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.
According to the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 2,500 people crossed the Aegean Sea this year from neighboring Turkey, compared to 9,700 in 2020, a year for which the UNHCR recorded more than 100 dead or missing.
For 2021, the UNHCR-Greece had identified until this last accident three shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea between January and March which killed six people, including one in Greek territorial waters off the island of Lesbos.
For its part, the International Organization for Migration reported three other shipwrecks between April and September in the same area, killing 13 people, including eight off the Greek island of Crete.