Athens: One person died and 25 remained missing after a boat filled with migrants sank off the Greek island of Gavdos, near Crete, the coast guard told AFP on Monday.

“Fifty-one were picked up by two boats that were in the area,” a coastguard spokesman said, adding that according to those plucked from the sea, 77 people were on board the boat when it went down.

Crete and Gavdos, about 320 kilometres (200 miles) from the Libyan coast, have become the main point of entry for asylum seekers in Greece.

In late August, Greece’s ANA news agency published figures from the immigration ministry that indicated that migrant arrivals in Greece fell from about 61,000 in the year to August 2025 to 42,000 in the following 12 months -- a decline of around 31 percent.

Authorities in Europe have tightened their immigration rules over recent years as far-right, anti-immigrant parties have won increasing support.

Greece’s immigration minister Thanos Plevris has pushed a strict policy on arrivals.

Greece has been in discussions with Germany and several other EU countries on setting up “return hubs” outside the bloc for processing migrants’ claims.