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A Turkish-flagged cargo ship rescued 48 Sudanese irregular migrants stranded at sea about 50 nautical miles south of Crete, Türkiye’s General Directorate of Maritime Affairs reported on Friday.
The DONAU EKSPRES II, sailing from Egypt to Denmark, took the group aboard after they had spent about three days at sea in adverse weather conditions that put their lives at risk. The group included one woman and two children, the statement said.
The 48 migrants were subsequently handed over safely to Greek coast guard personnel, according to the maritime authority. The DONAU EKSPRES II resumed its voyage after the handover.
The Turkish maritime authority did not provide further details on where the group had boarded or how they had reached the waters south of Crete.
The rescue comes amid a series of migrant arrivals in southern Crete. At least 202 migrants reached the island in less than 48 hours earlier this month after setting out from the Libyan coast, according to Greek media reports.
On Aug. 6, a Frontex aircraft detected a boat carrying 40 migrants southeast of Ierapetra. A Greek coast guard patrol, assisted by a fishing boat, brought the group to the port of Ierapetra, where authorities began registration and identity checks.
Hours earlier, two other boats carrying a combined 112 migrants had reached the area. One boat carried 56 people, including 31 Sudanese and 25 Bangladeshis, while the second carried 56 people, including 47 Bangladeshis and nine Egyptians.
Crete and the nearby island of Gavdos recorded 8,552 refugee and asylum-seeker arrivals in the first half of 2026, according to Refugee Support Aegean, which tracks arrivals in the region.
Some 3,159 Sudanese were among the 8,552 people who arrived in Crete and nearby Gavdos between Jan. 1 and June 30. Bangladeshis formed the largest group, with 3,536 arrivals, followed by Egyptians with 1,049, South Sudanese with 346 and Eritreans with 135.
In May, Greek authorities and the European border agency Frontex carried out four separate search-and-rescue operations south of Crete and Gavdos in a single morning, rescuing a total of 202 migrants from boats in distress.
Earlier in June, Greek authorities rescued 366 migrants from four boats south of Crete in a single day, with the largest group consisting of 192 people, including eight women and 42 children. Authorities have linked much of the recent traffic to departures from the Tobruk area of eastern Libya.
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