As the EU prepares tougher immigration measures, one Greek island sees an increase in illegal crossings

Timpaki, Greece — The Israeli-made Heron 2 drone turns the tarmac in a new surveillance mission.

The plane’s sensors scan the boats along the 350-kilometer (220-mile) stretch of sea between Libya and the Greek island of Crete and detect activity hidden below deck.

Greece’s largest island, Crete, saw a threefold increase in irregular migration last year, becoming the country’s busiest entry point with nearly 20,000 arrivals, with overall irregular migration to Europe falling by 26% in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to Frontex, the European Union’s border agency.

One of Europe’s deadliest migration corridors, where unclaimed bodies often wash ashore, the route to Crete has been fueled by wars and instability across Africa and is growing busier even as pressure eases on other Mediterranean routes.

As the EU prepares tougher measures to combat illegal immigration, Frontex says it will focus resources on Crete in an effort to end the surge in arrivals.

Eastern Libya has become a key launching point for smugglers, undermining years of EU efforts to curb departures and making Crete a new pressure point.

Many boats leaving Libya are overcrowded and barely seaworthy, attempting long, open journeys across Libyan waters, leading to tragedies like the sinking of a fishing trawler that killed at least 700 people in 2023.

Greek authorities recently rescued 20 migrants and recovered four bodies from a ship in distress south of Crete. Dozens of others are believed to be missing.

Each rescue underscores the same brutal reality: crossing is a gamble with life.

The route to Crete is significantly longer and more dangerous than the short journey from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands. This required a different operational response from Frontex, including larger ships and larger patrol boats capable of navigating the open sea for days, and expanded aerial surveillance.

Standing next to a drone at Timpaki Airfield in Crete, Marisz Kawczynski, senior Frontex operations officer, said the technology was inevitable.

“This property is of critical importance,” he said. “There is no substitute in modern technology for Europe to have eyes on the threats coming to our borders.”

Georgios Piliaros, head of Frontex operations in Greece and Cyprus, said bad weather in January and February led to an expected seasonal break, but the agency expects increased crossings in the spring.

“If we take into account what happened in the last two or three years, we will have some increase in the next months, for sure,” Piliaros said.

The escalation in Crete last year hardened political positions in Athens. Greece temporarily suspended asylum rights from migrants arriving via the Libyan route for three months, scrapped some amnesty provisions and introduced mandatory prison terms for asylum seekers whose claims were rejected.

The EU is also taking a hard line, with new bloc-wide immigration rules aimed at stricter border screening and faster deportations due to start in June.

Frontex’s standing corps is set to reach 10,000 officers by the end of the year – doubling the workforce in 2021 – reflecting expectations of policy change and continued pressure on key lines.

A war-tracking project at Sweden’s Uppsala University recorded 61 active conflicts globally in 2024 — the highest number since World War II — including expanding militant activity in West Africa, a key driver of displacement.

The International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency, estimates that at least 2,185 people will have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean in 2025. Feb. The agency said 606 migrant deaths had already been recorded in the Mediterranean as of 24, warning that limited access to information made more search and rescue possible.

“The continued loss of life on migration routes is a global failure that we cannot accept for granted,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope. “These deaths are not inevitable.”

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Gatopoulos reports from Athens, Greece.

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