Sealing the second smuggling route to Crete

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the issue at the EU Summit alongside his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, finding full understanding and support from fellow EU leaders who recognize the risk of a new migration crisis facing Europe.

Greece’s strategy includes deploying warships—since Coast Guard vessels cannot be easily mobilized for multi-day missions due to the distance—to international waters beyond Libya’s territorial waters. These ships will primarily serve a deterrent role, as their size makes them unsuitable for direct interception operations against small fishing boats typically used by smugglers.

However, the Greek warships will have a secondary mission: to notify the corresponding Libyan authorities in both eastern and western Libya of any detected movements using their radar systems. This is intended to enable Libyan forces to intervene and prevent the traffickers from setting sail—thus also demonstrating that Libya is not weaponizing migration flows in the manner Turkey did at the Evros border in February 2020.

Mitsotakis also implied that the EU will intervene with Egypt, given that a significant number of migrants originate from there, in order to facilitate and expedite their return.

He also spoke of a “carrot and stick” approach—referring to the EU’s offer of not just financial aid, but also technical expertise and tools for managing migrant and refugee flows. These flows are being driven by the unstable political situation in Libya, from which people seek to reach Greece and Italy.

As part of this initiative, an EU delegation—led by the European Commissioner for Migration and including ministers from Italy, Greece, and Malta—is scheduled to visit Tripoli and Libya next week to coordinate on this critical issue.

Naval Presence and Regional Tensions

The presence of Greek warships also comes amid renewed interest from Libya in the Turkey-Libya memorandum and disputes over Greece’s sovereign rights—especially following the publication, on June 12 in the EU’s official journal, of a tender for licenses related to two blocks south of Crete, which Chevron has expressed interest in.

Boatloads to Crete

At the same time, the new migration corridor chosen by smugglers—from eastern Libya to Crete—is creating unbearable pressure on local communities, prompting the government to take urgent action.

The volume of these flows is causing headaches for relevant ministries (Shipping, Citizen Protection, Migration) as well as the Prime Minister’s Office. The ministers must handle these arrivals through a delicate mix of law enforcement and logistics, while the PM’s staff realizes that a coordinated response is necessary to prevent public perception that migration is again becoming a central issue.

From the beginning of the year to June 24, 7,044 migrants had arrived in Crete. This figure far exceeds the island’s proportional share compared to the rest of Greece. By comparison, during the same period last year, the Coast Guard had rescued 1,968 people, while in all of 2024, the total number did not exceed 5,000, representing less than 10% of total sea arrivals to Greece (53,440).