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At least 13 migrants have died after their boat sank off the Greek island of Crete, the Greek coastguard confirmed, with 18 survivors — all Sudanese nationals — rescued from the water. Four of those survivors, including a toddler, were taken to hospital.
Authorities said the precise cause of the sinking had not been immediately established, but they believed the vessel had been at sea for several days and had been unable to reach shore because of strong winds. One coastguard official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the survivors were “shivering from the cold” when they were pulled to safety.
The boat was first spotted by a Moroccan-flagged container ship approximately 15 nautical miles — about 28 kilometres — off Crete’s coast before the coastguard mounted its rescue operation.
A route under growing pressure
The incident is the latest in a series of deadly crossings in Greek waters. On the same day, the coastguard rescued a further 187 people in three separate operations elsewhere off the Greek coast. According to United Nations figures, more than 37,000 migrants have arrived in Greece so far this year, a total that has already surpassed the full-year figure for 2025.
Crete has emerged as a particularly significant point of entry. Of the 86,400 sea arrivals recorded in Greece this year, more than 22,000 landed on the island alone. Crossings from Libya have surged in recent years, driven in part by people fleeing the conflict in Sudan as well as migrants from Bangladesh and other countries seeking economic opportunities in Europe.
The Greek government has announced measures to manage the increased arrivals, among them plans to open a temporary housing complex near Heraklion, the Cretan capital.
Greece was the focal point of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016, when close to a million people reached its islands, the majority crossing from Turkey. Arrivals subsequently fell as border controls tightened across the region, but the Libya route has seen a marked resurgence.