More than 500 migrants reached the port of Lavrio near Athens on Thursday after being intercepted south of Crete, as Greece ramps up emergency measures to handle a sharp increase in crossings from Libya across the Mediterranean.
The migrants, mostly young men, were transferred overnight aboard a bulk carrier after their fishing trawler was stopped by Greek authorities. Service vessels helped bring them ashore at the mainland port, where they will be placed in detention facilities near Athens.
Their transfer to the mainland was prompted by the saturation of makeshift reception centers on Crete, which has been receiving approximately 500 new arrivals daily since the weekend.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday that Greece would suspend asylum processing for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa for three months. The move was part of a broader response to mounting diplomatic tensions between Greece, the European Union, and Libya over migration cooperation. Earlier this week, EU officials were turned away from eastern Libya amid disagreements over how to coordinate efforts to curb crossings.
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