AS SARA

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Container ship rescued 223 migrants off Crete

On the morning of June 20ß, 2025, the 'AS Sara', en route from Venice to Port Said, rescued 223 migrants from a fishing boat 50 nautical miles south of Kala Limeni, near Crete. 51 people were taken aboard the patrol boats. The Port Authorities of Agia Galini, Kala Limeni, Kokkinos Pyrgos and Paleochora were informed by the SAR Coordination Center of the Greek Coastguard Headquarters about a vessel in difficulties and deployed two patrol ships and a FRONTEX vessel to the position of the wooden fishing boat with the 274 people on board, among them 229 men and 45 minors, which was located by the unmanned aircraft "Heron2". The castaways were transferred to the anchorage of Kala Limeni and with the assistance of the launch 'Eleni' safely disembarked ashore. They were then taken to a temporary accommodation area in the port of Heraklion. During the preliminary investigatio, which was conducted by the Central Port Authority of Heraklion, three Egyptian nationals. aged 21, 34 and 46, were identified as human traffickers andarrested for violating article 83 of Law 3386/2005 "Illegal entry into the country", article 25 of Law 5038/2023 "Facilitation", article 45 of the Criminal Code "Aid" and article 306 of the Criminal Code "Exposure". According to a statement by the survivors, they set off in the early hours of 19.06.2025 from the coast of Tobruk, Libya, paying for their transport to Greece amounts of 170,000 - 200,000 Libyan dinars and 3,000 US dollars. Report with photo: https://www.hcg.gr/el/epikairothta/entopismos-kai-diaswsh-274-allodapwn-sth-8alassia-perioxh-50-nm-notia-twn-kalwn-limenwn-n-krhths-kai-syllhpsh-twn-triwn-diakinhtwn-toys-synexeia-enhmerwshs-anaforika-me-ton-entopismo-kai-diaswsh-73-allodapwn-sth-8alassia-perioxh-19-nm-notia-ths-gayd/