Greek authorities have deployed or put about 20 commercial ships on standby to help bring to safety more than 200 people in distress amid a flare-up of Europe’s migrant crisis over the weekend.
In what is one of several incidents taking place just a few hours away from each other, the 173,400-cbm British Achiever (built 2018) saved 89 people from a boat encountered 28 nautical miles (32 km) south of the small island of Gavdos.
The BP Shipping-operated vessel helped evacuate the migrants brought to Crete, further north.
The 1,118-teu Mito (built 2006) — a container ship operated by liner giant Ocean Network Express — was involved in a dramatic rescue about 12 nautical miles south-west of Gavdos.
Under difficult weather conditions, the vessel’s crew saved 33 persons from a wooden boat and retrieved one body from the water.
Another four dead bodies were found in the vicinity, even though it is not clear if those were retrieved by the Mito as well, or by a different vessel.
A little bit further to the south, the 62,700-dwt Thenamaris bulker Seabee (built 2015) took in 47 migrants about 40 miles off Gavdos.
The 15,100-dwt Blue Ciment 4 (built 2011) — a ship in the fleet of Cyprus-based Mastermind Shipmanagement — intervened to save 28 people from a boat 6 miles south-west of Cape Tainaron, the southernmost tip of the Greek mainland.
In line with standard practice, Greek authorities arrested a few of the saved migrants to file people smuggling charges against them.
According to Greek coastguards, the boat encountered by the British Achiever had 32 people from war-torn Syria on board — 18 men, five women and nine minors.
The rest came from Egypt, Bangladesh and Sudan.
The boat they were on had set out from Tobruk in Libya. They paid EGP 200,000 (about $3,900) for a place on board, the Greek coastguard said. Their suspected people smuggler, a 35-year-old Egyptian national, is under arrest.
The other rescue stories from this weekend are similar.
The 47 men saved by the Seabee — 17 Syrians, 10 Egyptians, seven Bangladeshis, five Pakistanis, five Yemenis and three Sudanese — had set out from Tobruk as well.
Most of the migrants in the deadly incident in which the Mito was involved came from Pakistan.
The wooden boat they were on had departed near Musaid, another town in Libya across the Greek shore.
