Greece rescues 47 migrants off Crete as refugee arrivals inspire new book

A coordinated rescue operation led by the United Nations‑European Union border agency Frontex and Greece's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (EKSED) located a boat with about 47 migrants 55 nautical miles southeast of the port of Kaloi Limenes, Crete. The Frontex aircraft spotted the vessel and a Frontex ship intercepted it, safely transferring all passengers to the port for registration and identification.

The rescue reflects the continuing flow of refugees that have reached the Aegean islands since 2015. A new collection of short stories, “The Mountains on My Back” by Apostolos Staikos and published by EuMaros, compiles narratives from 2015‑2022 about those journeys and the media coverage surrounding them. The book is accompanied by a song composed by Giorgos Kagiaklis and performed by Mahdi Safaei and Ania Armenaki.