ATHENS: A total of 830 refugees and migrants were picked up in a series of rescue operations south of the Greek island of Crete in recent days, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported, quoting officials.
Nearly 400 people were picked up on Friday alone, Greek media reported, in operations involving fishing boats and patrol boats from the Greek coast guard and EU border protection agency Frontex.
Dozens of people were in the boats, in some cases more than 100, including minors, the coastguard said.
The people set sail from Tobruk in Libya and paid large sums of money for the dangerous 300km journey across the open sea, according to the authority. Several people were arrested on suspicion of being human traffickers.
Crete has already recorded more than 18,000 refugee arrivals this year, the coastguard said, up from some 5,000 last year.