Greece rescued 42 migrants off the island of Crete and was looking for three believed to be missing after their boat sent a distress signal while at sea, the Greek coastguard said on Thursday.
\nA coastguard official said the migrants were rescued by commercial vessels and a Greek navy helicopter some 27 nautical miles southwest of Crete.
\nIt was not clear what happened to their boat, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding that a search and rescue operation for the missing was under way.
\nThe island of Crete and its tiny neighbour Gavdos, Europe\u2019s southernmost tip, have seen a surge in arrivals of migrants looking to cross to Europe from Libya in recent months.
\nThe Greek government has pledged money and staff to help the ill-equipped islands handle the situation.
\nGreece has been a favoured gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia since 2015 when nearly 1 million people landed on its islands, causing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Thousands of others have died at sea.
\nUntil recently, migrants had preferred islands further east near Turkey over Crete and Gavdos.
\n(Reuters)migrants, boat, rescue. migrants, Greece, rescue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greece rescued 42 migrants off the island of Crete and was searching for three missing after their boat sent a distress signal. The migrants were rescued by commercial vessels and a Greek navy helicopter, and a search operation was underway. Crete and Gavdos have seen an increase in migrant arrivals from Libya. Greece has provided support to the islands to handle the situation. Greece has been a popular entry point to the EU for migrants and refugees since 2015, with many arriving on its islands and thousands dying at sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[589,4433,403,1219,1240,6823,5262,5255,6822,379,201,2404,415,747,9321,1235,964,1823,1973,69,1563,1259,821,3747,2628,714,4371,531,389,1480,3260,6238,1705,6386,1358,1565,5008,177,18],"class_list":["post-12061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-africa","tag-arrivals","tag-asia","tag-boat","tag-clear","tag-coastguard","tag-crete","tag-crisis","tag-distress","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-government","tag-greece","tag-greek-navy","tag-humanitarian","tag-humanitarian-crisis","tag-increase","tag-libya","tag-middle-east","tag-migrant-arrivals","tag-migrants","tag-migration","tag-missing","tag-money","tag-navy","tag-operation","tag-refugees","tag-rescue","tag-rescue-operation","tag-sea","tag-search","tag-search-and-rescue","tag-situation","tag-support","tag-surge","tag-surge-in-arrivals","tag-turkey","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n