Over 150 migrants rescued in the Aegean Sea

(Patria) - Around 150 migrants were rescued from overcrowded sailboats provided by smugglers in two separate incidents on Wednesday near the western Greek islands and off the Cycladic island near the Greek capital, the coast guard said, AP reports.

In the first case, a group of 76 people were rescued from a boat 64 nautical miles southwest of the island of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea in western Greece, the coast guard said in a statement. All were transferred to a passing cargo ship flying the Egyptian flag, and there were no reports of anyone missing.

It was not immediately clear where the sailboat had departed from, but the area lies on a route often used by smuggling boats carrying migrants from Turkey or North Africa to Italy.

In the second incident, about 80 people were evacuated from a sailboat off the island of Kythnos, one of the Cyclades southeast of Athens. The coast guard said they were all in good health and were transferred to the port of Kythnos.

Also on Wednesday, in two separate incidents, the Greek coast guard picked up 29 migrants from boats off islands near Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea. On Tuesday, another 90 people were rescued in four separate incidents in the eastern Aegean.

Greece has seen an increase in the arrival of smuggling boats bringing migrants to the country in the last two months, mostly small inflatable boats heading for the eastern Aegean islands from the nearby Turkish coast.

More than 17,300 people have arrived in Greece by land and sea this year, according to the latest UN data. About 13,500 of them arrived by sea, and 5,500 reached Lesbos.

The arrivals account for more than a tenth of this year's successful Mediterranean crossings, most of which, around 113,000, were to Italy. In all of 2022, 19,000 people arrived in Greece.