At least 20 people were found dead and two others remain missing following a series of incidents involving boats carrying refugees and migrants south of Crete. A total of 133 people were rescued in four operations in the waters around Kali Limenes.
In the first incident, on November 7, 2026, the coast guard was alerted to a boat in distress approximately six nautical miles south-southwest of Kali Limenes. The tugboat Pyrros rescued 28 Sudanese nationals, two of whom were hospitalized, and recovered the body of a man. According to survivors, two other people had fallen into the sea and remain missing.
Strong northerly winds of 6 to 7 on the Beaufort scale made it particularly dangerous to continue the operation. The boat was located again in the early morning hours, with seven more bodies on board, and was brought to Kali Limenes.
In a second incident, approximately 15 nautical miles southeast of Kali Limenes, a passing Moroccan-flagged container ship spotted a boat. A Hellenic Coast Guard vessel rescued 18 survivors and recovered 12 bodies. The survivors and the bodies were taken to the port of Agia Galini.
Authorities arrested two Sudanese nationals suspected of smuggling.
Meanwhile, two more boats were located approximately 30 and 31 nautical miles south of Crete, carrying 47 and 40 people respectively. A total of 87 people were rescued by Frontex vessels, with support from crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
According to testimony from survivors of the first boat, they had departed from the Libyan coast on November 3 or 4, 2026, each paying between 12,000 and 16,000 Libyan dinars for the journey to Greece.
Two Sudanese nationals, aged 28 and 16, were arrested on suspicion of smuggling. They face charges of illegal entry, facilitating illegal entry, forming a criminal gang, and exposing others to danger resulting in death.
The arrests renew attention to the criminalization of refugees and migrants as smugglers. A report by CPT – Aegean Migrant Solidarity and the Border Violence Monitoring Network, based on the monitoring of 123 court cases, documented serious shortcomings in judicial proceedings. Nearly half of the trials lasted less than 30 minutes, while interpretation problems were recorded in 94% of cases.
Source: ERTnews
