- Deputy Minister Sevi Voloudaki says Crete is being “decongested” with daily transfers to the mainland.
- Since Monday, 136 people left Chania, 166 from Heraklion, 116 from Rethymno.
- The government claims a 30% national drop in arrivals, 40% in the eastern Aegean.
- Coast Guard praised for working “in warlike conditions.”
- Voloudaki links migration pressures to broader geopolitics, including the Chevron-Turkish-Libyan deal and energy disputes.
If you live on Crete, you do not need the Ministry to tell you that the island is feeling the weight of migration. It is visible on the quays, on the buses that leave before sunrise, and in the low murmur of conversations at kafeneia tables. Still, Deputy Minister of Migration and Asylum Sevi Voloudaki appeared on ERT News to assure the public that the “decongestion” of Crete is already underway.
From Monday, she said, transfers to the mainland began in earnest—200 people a day on average. In plain numbers:
- 136 departures from Chania
- 166 from Heraklion
- 116 from Rethymno
By the weekend, the plan is to move another 350 in total. “The decongestion of Crete starts with concrete transfers that are already happening,” she declared.
On a broader canvas, the Ministry insists the overall picture is improving: a 30% reduction in arrivals compared to last year, almost 40% down in the eastern Aegean. Statistics offered up like proof of efficiency.
She reserved a few strong words for the Hellenic Coast Guard, whose men and women, in her phrasing, face “warlike conditions in the Aegean” while simultaneously keeping borders intact and saving lives. A reminder that for every table of figures in Athens, there are night patrols at sea where the weather and human desperation are far less tidy.
Voloudaki also could not resist tying the local story into the global one. When energy deals shift—Chevron’s involvement, or the Turkish-Libyan memorandum resurfaces—smugglers, she argued, seize their chance to intensify pressure. Migration, she said, “is a dynamic phenomenon,” a phrase that sounds like it was designed for PowerPoint slides, yet it was offered as proof of flexibility: the Ministry, she promised, is “reprogramming and revising our strategy according to real data, to give realistic and applicable solutions.”
In other words, Crete’s harbors will continue to see buses and boarding calls for the mainland. And in the meantime, locals will keep noticing what the official numbers rarely capture—the pace of change in their own streets.
Written by Manuel Santos with assistance from Arthur (ChatGPT).