{"id":1101,"date":"2026-05-11T16:03:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2026-05-19T06:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:57:08","slug":"crete-settlement-continues-as-228-illegal-immigrants-rescued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/crete-settlement-continues-as-228-illegal-immigrants-rescued\/","title":{"rendered":"Crete: Settlement Continues as 228 Illegal Immigrants Rescued"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>Smugglers transporting illegal immigrants were arrested during recent rescue operations south of Crete, revealing that migration flows to the area continue.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>New rescue operations conducted in recent days <strong>south of Crete<\/strong>, near <strong>Gavdos<\/strong> and <strong>Kalo Limenes<\/strong>, led to the arrest of smugglers involved in the transportation of migrants. According to reports, <strong>85 foreigners<\/strong> were located <strong>26 nautical miles south of Gavdos<\/strong>, where <strong>a 27-year-old South Sudanese national<\/strong> was arrested, identified as the <strong>smuggler<\/strong> responsible for transporting them from Tobruk, Libya to Greece in exchange for payment.<\/p>\n<p>The young man, charged with illegal entry, facilitating migrant transportation, and endangering others, was arrested while attempting to escape from the authorities. At the same time, <strong>two 20-year-olds<\/strong>, also <strong>South Sudanese nationals<\/strong>, were arrested for smuggling <strong>44 foreigners<\/strong> in the maritime area near <strong>Kalo Limenes<\/strong>, having been identified by the rescued migrants as the organizers of their transport.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><noscript><\/noscript><\/p>\n<h2>What is the rate charged by the smugglers?<\/h2>\n<p>According to testimonies, the group departed from Tobruk on the night of May 9, 2026, with <strong>each person paying amounts ranging from 13,000 to 14,000 Libyan dinars<\/strong>, approximately <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1,900 euros<\/strong><\/span>. The preliminary investigation is being conducted by the Central Port Authority of Heraklion, which is closely monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n<p>On the same day, the Coast Guard was informed of another boat with migrants in distress, 45 nautical miles southeast of Kalo Limenes. A patrol vessel of the Coast Guard rescued <strong>43 foreigners<\/strong>, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>all males<\/strong><\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>minors<\/strong><\/span>, who were transferred to the port of Kalo Limenes before being taken to the port of Heraklion, accompanied by officers from the Special Missions Unit and the local police.<\/p>\n<p>During the preliminary investigation, a <strong>19-year-old South Sudanese national<\/strong> was identified as a smuggler and arrested, with information indicating that the rescued migrants began their journey from Tobruk, paying amounts ranging from <strong>200,000 Egyptian guineas, or 3,200 euros<\/strong>, to 13,000 Libyan dinars.<\/p>\n<p>Another operation took place in the afternoon when the Port Authority of <strong>Agia Galini<\/strong> received information about a boat carrying illegal immigrants 45 nautical miles southeast of <strong>Gavdos<\/strong>. A vessel from <strong>Frontex<\/strong> rushed to the area, locating the boat and rescuing <strong>56 foreigners<\/strong>, who were transferred to the port of Agia Galini and then hosted in a facility in Rethymno. The preliminary inquiry for this case is being conducted by the Port Authority of Rethymno.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Source\/Photo: <strong>neakriti.gr<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities arrested multiple smugglers transporting migrants near Crete amid ongoing rescue operations, highlighting persistent migration flows and costly human trafficking routes from Libya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[987,986,988,896,895],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-frontex","tag-gaudos","tag-heraklion-port","tag-libya","tag-south-sudan","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1103,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions\/1103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}