The coastguard said it had received the distress call shortly after midnight on Monday. Two nearby cargo ships, a tanker and two Italian fishing boats were lending assistance, it said.
Because of bolstered patrols by the Greek coastguard and EU border agency Frontex in the Aegean Sea, migrant smugglers are increasingly employing the longer and more perilous route south of Crete, Greek officials say.
“Eighty percent of flows from Turkey go straight to Italy,” Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi told Skai TV last week
Last month, one of the sailboats believed to have 95 people on board sank at the island of Kythira, south of the Peloponnese peninsula.
The boat went down beneath a huge vertical cliff. At least eight people died and survivors — mainly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan — were hauled to safety with ropes and a construction crane in a frantic pre-dawn operation.
Greece, Italy and Spain are among the countries used by people fleeing Africa and the Middle East in search of safety and better lives in the European Union.
The Greek coastguard has said it has rescued about 1,500 people in the first eight months of the year, compared with less than 600 last year.
