Cruise ship rescues 77 migrants in sailing boat found southwest of Greece

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A cruise ship rescued 77 migrants found overnight in a sailboat in distress far off the southwestern coast of Greece and was transporting them to the nearest major port, Greek authorities said Tuesday.

A passing Maltese-flagged cargo ship found the boat 112 nautical miles (129 miles, 207 kilometers) southwest of the town of Pylos in the early hours of Tuesday, the coast guard said. In an operation coordinated by Greece’s search and rescue authority, all those on board were picked up by a cruise ship sailing in the area and were being transported to the southern Greek port town of Kalamata, authorities said.

There were no reports of any people missing. No information was immediately available on the nationalities of those on the sailboat or where they had set out from.

Greece lies on one of the most popular migration routes for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and seeking to enter the European Union.

Many attempt to make the short crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby eastern Greek islands in small dinghies. But with a crackdown on attempts to enter the country illegally, some prefer to skirt around Greece altogether and head directly to Italy in larger boats such as sailing or fishing boats, starting out either from southern Turkey or from north Africa.

Last year, a massively overcrowded fishing trawler carrying an estimated 500-750 people sank off the coast of Pylos as it headed from Libya to Italy, in one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest migrant shipwrecks. Only 104 people survived the sinking of the Adriana, and just over 80 bodies were recovered. The rest went down with the trawler in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean, making recovery efforts essentially impossible.

The Greek coast guard came under intense criticism for its actions concerning the Adriana, which had been sailing in international waters but within Greece’s area of responsibility for search and rescue operations. A coast guard patrol boat and several merchant ships had been shadowing the Adriana for hours when it sank, but were unable to evacuate the passengers and prevent the massive loss of life. Survivors have said the Adriana went down during a botched coast guard attempt to tow it, which Greek officials strongly deny.

The Associated Press