At least 13 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of the Greek island of Crete, the Greek Coast Guard said. Rescue crews pulled 18 survivors from the water, all of them Sudanese nationals. Four of the survivors were taken to a hospital, including a toddler.
The Coast Guard said it was not immediately clear what caused the deaths. Authorities believe the vessel had been at sea for several days and had struggled to reach shore because of strong winds. A Moroccan-flagged container ship spotted the migrants’ boat about 15 nautical miles (28 kilometers) off Crete’s coast.
One Coast Guard official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the survivors were “shivering from the cold.”
The sinking underscores Crete’s role as one of the main gateways for migrants trying to reach Europe from the Middle East and North Africa. More than 22,000 of the 86,400 sea arrivals recorded so far this year landed on Crete alone.
Elsewhere in Greece, the Coast Guard rescued another 187 people in three separate incidents on Monday. More than 37,000 migrants have arrived in Greece so far this year, United Nations figures show, already surpassing the number who arrived in the entirety of 2025.
The Greek government has announced plans to deal with the influx, including opening a temporary housing complex near Heraklion, the capital of Crete.
Greece was at the heart of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016, when nearly one million people arrived on its islands, mostly from Turkey. Arrivals later fell as border controls tightened. In recent years, however, crossings from Libya have surged, particularly among people fleeing conflict in Sudan and others from countries including Bangladesh seeking better economic opportunities.