At Least One Dead and 25 Missing After Migrant Boat Sinks Off Greek Island Near Crete

One person has died, 25 are missing, and 51 people have been rescued after a boat carrying migrants sank off a Greek island near Crete, according to the country’s coastguard. Fifty-one survivors were picked up by two boats that were in the area, a coastguard spokesman said on Monday. The survivors reported that 77 people were on board when the boat went down near the island of Gavdos.

Search and rescue efforts were ongoing, with four ships, boats, Frontex aircraft, and a coastguard helicopter operating in the area, Greece’s public broadcaster ERT News reported. The 51 rescued people were due to be brought to Crete, where the prescribed procedures will be followed, ERT reported. After arriving in Crete, undocumented migrants generally face immediate arrest and temporary confinement before being transferred to closed detention camps on the Greek mainland. Under Greek law, individuals are subject to extended administrative detention, severe penalties, and fast-track deportation.

Strong winds blowing through the area have been hampering the search operation, ERT said. Crete and Gavdos, about 320km from the Libyan coast, have become the main point of entry for asylum seekers in Greece. In late August, Greece’s ANA news agency published figures from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum that indicated that migrant arrivals in the country fell from about 61,000 in the year to August 2025 to 42,000 in the following 12 months – a decline of about 31 percent.

Greece’s conservative government in July suspended all asylum claims for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa for three months, a move it argued helped deter crossings.

This report was produced in the Europe Brief News newsroom.