A hundred migrants, mostly Afghans, were rescued on Sunday from their boat in difficulty near the Greek island of Paros by the Greek coast guard, we learned from the port police.
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According to initial information, all passengers have been transferred safely to a Greek Port Police ship and taken to the port of Paros, where they are to be tested for coronavirus.
The Greek authorities had not yet decided Sunday noon of the final place of their transfer.
The sailboat on board which the migrants had boarded had left the western Turkish coast and was destined for Italy, according to the Greek port police.
In December, a shipwreck killed at least 31 people near Paros, a posh Cycladic island that was not on the migrant route until now.
Greece with the help of Frontex, the European border surveillance agency, has considerably tightened controls in recent years limiting the arrivals of migrants on the northwestern Aegean islands, such as Lesbos and Samos.
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Smugglers trying to avoid patrols near the northern Aegean islands are taking new, more perilous routes from Turkey.
