A sail boat loaded with as many as 85 irregular migrants was located overnight by the coast guard in a sea region off the harbor town of Pylos, in extreme southwest Greece.
According to initial reports, one of the passengers on the migrant-smuggling vessel telephoned authorities in Kalamata to request assistance, whereby a signal was given to all ships in the area.
The illegal migrants were taken to Kalamata. No information was given on their nationality or from where the vessel disembarked.
Migrant smugglers plying the Mediterranean sea routes are increasingly eschewing the clandestine off-loading of third country nationals onto remote beaches and coves and instead requesting assistance from authorities when reaching an EU country’s territorial waters.
