Lesvos and Samos: 417 migrants transferred from Crete

A total of 417 refugees and migrants were transferred on Sunday 23 August 2026 from Crete to Lesvos and Samos, according to figures cited by local news outlet Lesvosnews.net: around 200 people went to Samos and 217 to Lesvos. There is a small discrepancy between sources, as Capital.gr headlines its report as the transfer of 420 people. The three-person difference is not explained by either source and has not been clarified in any official announcement. Both outlets, however, describe the same transfer operation on the same day to the two islands of the North and East Aegean. These transfers concern people who reached Crete, where arrivals increased over the summer.

Sources within the Ministry of Migration and Asylum maintain that the transfers are temporary and are carried out for identification, screening and checks within the border procedure, not for permanent settlement on the islands. According to the same government side, more than 2,300 transfers from Lesvos and more than 2,400 from Samos to other facilities across the country have taken place during 2026, while occupancy at the facilities is at historically low levels. The Ministry also states that the Closed Controlled Facility on Lesvos, at Kara Tepe, has a capacity of 3,840 places. These figures are government claims and have not been confirmed by an independent source in the reports that reproduce them. The government side frames the transfers within the logic of the border procedure, which provides for rapid examination of asylum applications at designated facilities.

In the North Aegean, the development prompted reactions. At an emergency meeting convened at the Region of the North Aegean, MP for Lesvos Charalambos Athanasiou conveyed an assurance from Minister of Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris that the 217 people who arrived on the island would stay “only for a few days.” Local government and political bodies on Lesvos, as recorded by Aftodioikisi.gr, are calling for institutional guarantees that the transfer from Crete will not develop into a permanent practice. The request concerns commitments with a time horizon rather than verbal assurances, since the islands already have experience of prolonged stays of populations at facilities designed as temporary.

On the Crete side, a temporary accommodation facility operates in Chania and a second facility has been sited in Heraklion, while a financing framework of 5 million euros has been approved for transfers of asylum seekers from the island to the mainland. Pressure on Crete had already been recorded since the summer, with operations such as the triple rescue of 159 people in southern Crete and the repeated arrivals off Gavdos. The question that remains open is how long the stay on the two islands will last and whether a written commitment will be given, something none of the three sources mentions.