The Greek Coast Guard has arrested 124 migrants on the island of Karpathos after spotting speedboats without identification markers.
According to the Coast Guard, on January 8, 58 people were arrested close to the island’s main port in the eastern Aegean Sea, while 66 more were detained at a secluded location north of the island.
Few details about the migrants were disclosed but it was said that one, a 24-year-old, was in possession of forged identification documents.
In late December, there was an accident with speedboats smuggling migrants into Greece when one vessel capsized off the island of Rhodes, causing eight deaths.
The Coast Guard said that occurred when the speedboat was performing “dangerous manoeuvres” to try to escape a patrol ship, causing the migrants to fall overboard.
Eastern Greece lies on the human trafficking route in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Also on January 8, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Greece had illegally deported a woman back to Turkey after not carrying out a prior examination of the risks she faced in her home country.
The ECHR had accused Greece of “systematically” applying pushbacks, denying people their right to ask for asylum.
The country was ordered to pay €20,000 damages to the returned woman.
In 2022, the Greek National Transparency Authority, a publicly funded anti-corruption watchdog, found no evidence to support allegations of illegal deportations after a four-month investigation.
The ECHR’s ruling may have an impact on how Europe handles migrants at its borders, particularly as Greece and other European Union members have called for more stringent immigration policies.
Greece recorded a rise of 50 per cent in illegal migrant arrivals in 2024, most of whom claimed they had come from Syria.
There was a sharp decline in illegal migration to Italy in 2024, with almost 60 per cent fewer illegitimate migrants reaching the country than in 2023. https://t.co/5XZRaHKnQN
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 2, 2025
