(AP) Five people were arrested on a Greek island Tuesday and charged with trying to smuggle nearly a hundred migrants into Europe on an unsafe vessel last week, using what appears to be a new direct sea route from crisis-afflicted Lebanon to Italy.
It was the second such incident in about a month involving a boat departing Lebanon. The more common sea route for asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in Europe is from Turkey to Greece or Italy. But it has become less used amid increased vigilance by Greek and European Union border agencies.
Greece’s coast guard said Tuesday that the suspected smugglers were detained from among 101 people on the motor yacht found drifting last Thursday 75 miles southeast of Greece’s southeastern Aegean island of Karpathos. It said the suspects included nationals of Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
