The rescued migrants consisted of 63 men, 24 women and 21 children, who told authorities that four other people were missing. Late Saturday, the coast guard received reports of a drift sailing off the uninhabited Greek island of Delos. He sent three rescue boats and a tug in response. Rescuers were able to tow the boat to an islet off the nearby island of Mykonos in the early hours of Sunday, authorities said. The migrants were then transported safely to Mykonos. They claimed to the authorities that their boat had sailed from Turkey to an unknown destination. “Once again, the Coast Guard has saved lives that the unscrupulous trafficking networks have put in mortal danger without even the strictest protection measures,” said Minister of Shipping and Island Policy Ioannis Plakiotakis. Meanwhile, in the neighboring country of Northern Macedonia, police announced that they had discovered 71 migrants in two separate operations on Saturday night and arrested three men suspected of human trafficking. Police raided a house in the northern city of Kumanovo and found 44 Pakistanis and a man from India. The owner of the house, a 41-year-old man who was identified only by his initials as UF, was also arrested. Image: Immigrants were photographed in a shelter in Mykonos after the rescue The migrants allegedly entered illegally from Greece and waited to be smuggled to Serbia before traveling to unknown EU countries. Authorities say they have been transferred to a refugee reception center on the border with Serbia pending deportation. Separately, Greek police discovered 26 migrants from Syria hiding in a van during a routine check at a toll station on the highway in the southern part of the country. The driver of the van and his assistant, Macedonian nationals, were arrested, officials said on Sunday. The migrants were transferred to a reception center near the border with Greece, awaiting deportation to that country. Police say the Balkan route for migrants, via northern Macedonia, has become more active in recent months as many countries lift travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes after at least 444 people crossed the Channel on Tuesday, the highest daily number since the government announced plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda. Hundreds of people made the dangerous crossing of France as the government struggled at the last minute with legal challenges to stop the first deportation flight departing on Tuesday. More than 10,700 people have arrived in the UK by small boat this year, according to data gathered and analyzed by Sky News. That is double the number that arrived in Britain at the same time last year, the figures show.
