The Greek island of Crete becomes an increasingly visited goal of refugee boats from Libya. In the first half of 2025, 7,300 people have already arrived, which is an increase of 350 percent compared to the previous year. Migration researcher Judith Kohlenberger has now analyzed why this is the case.
“The coast of Libya has been known for years as part of the Smuggler route. The country is dangerous for migrants, nobody wants to stay in Libya,” she told the APA press agency. The migrants travel via the eastern Mediterranean route, which includes all movements to Cyprus, the Greek Sea and the Land and to the Bulgarian country border with Türkiye.
“There would be the possibility to divide the people who are now arriving in Crete in Greece and in the EU. This also provides for the solidarity mechanism that should be implemented in mid -2026,” said migration researcher Kohlenberger. Instead, attempts are made to create the story of a crisis through tent camps and photos of an overloaded holiday island. This makes it easier for more border protection and rejections to argue, which has not led to sustainable solutions so far.
“People even flee without a sea ship”
“National governments try to suggest that the sea rescue is a pull-factor for refugee one will still be saved. The problem: people would still flee, even if there was no sea rescue. There would be more dead,” said Kohlenberger. Pull factors mean causes in the migration movement that people attract. The opposite is push factors.
“On average, a person on the escape route is currently dying over the central Mediterranean Sea every eight hours,” the humanitarian consultant told Doctors Without Borders, Marcus Bachmann. According to the UN information, 517 people died or have been missing since the beginning of the year in the crossing to Europe. “Migration routes are increasingly moving on the Zeroute because they cannot be monitored as much if the country borders. But they are much risky,” said Kohlenberger.
“EU can be tried to blackmail”
“The EU is in fact involved in Libya’s attempts to blackmail. Authoritarian regime knowledge of Europe’s migration panic to enforce their interests for a lot of money. You have acknowledged that the disagreement about how to deal with refugees should and can be distributed with refugees and the division of migrants.
A EU delegation, including migration commissioner Magnus Brunner, had met each other in Tripolis on 8 July with Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, including to talk about the fight against human smuggling.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
