One person died and 25 remain missing after a migrant boat sank off Gavdos, Greece's southernmost island, on Monday, September 14. The Greek coast guard said two vessels in the area rescued 51 people from the water.

"Fifty-one were picked up by two boats that were in the area," a coast guard spokesperson said, according to news agency AFP. Survivors told rescuers that 77 people were on board when the vessel capsized.

Gavdos is a tiny island — 32 square kilometers with roughly 140 inhabitants — sitting south of Crete. Both islands lie around 320 kilometers from the Libyan coast and have increasingly become a primary entry point into Greece for migrants and asylum seekers attempting the Mediterranean crossing.

What do the latest numbers show?

The shipwreck comes amid a striking split in Greece's arrival data. Overall sea arrivals to the country are falling, while arrivals to Crete and Gavdos — and deaths at sea — are rising.

According to UNHCR records, 25,524 migrants entered Greece by irregular means between the beginning of the year and September 6. Of those, 19,787 arrived by boat. Government figures show close to 15,500 irregular arrivals by boat since the start of the year, compared with just over 23,000 during the same period last year.

The eastern Mediterranean route has also grown more lethal. The UN migration agency IOM, whose data was last updated on September 8, recorded 387 deaths in the eastern Mediterranean this year — a 74 percent increase from 223 deaths over the comparable period last year. The central and western Mediterranean routes show the same dangerous trend.

Who is affected by the sinking?

The 51 survivors of the Gavdos sinking now join the growing number of people reaching Crete and its outlying islands rather than the Aegean islands further north, where arrivals have declined. Search operations for the 25 missing passengers continued after the incident.

The wreck adds to a deadly year on the route between Libya and Greece's southern islands. Just recently, more than 155 migrants arrived on Crete and Gavdos in one episode, and Greek authorities pursued a case against a 14-year-old boy in connection with that crossing.

How is Greece responding?

Across Europe, governments have tightened border controls and migration policies in recent months and years, amid growing political support for far-right and anti-immigration parties.

Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris has continued to champion a strict approach toward new irregular arrivals. Greece has also signed off on legislation to build "return hubs" in third countries — centers located outside the EU that would process rejected asylum seekers and migration claims.

Greek officials have held discussions with Germany and several other EU member states about establishing these external return hubs, part of a broader European push to process migration claims beyond the bloc's borders.

For now, the numbers point in two directions at once: fewer people reaching Greece overall, but more people risking — and losing — their lives on the southern route to Crete and Gavdos. Official figures from the Greek coast guard, UNHCR and IOM remain the authoritative sources for tracking both trends.