:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/QGPJNVGMNBC23CYOEJLTNTUYBA.jpg "Greek authorities discuss migration amid surge in arrivals")
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — The Greek government met Friday to try to improve coordination to address migration, as a group of 102 migrants crossing overland from Turkey and other parts of the Mediterranean country saw an increase in arrivals by sea
Merchant shipping, police and migration ministers discussed joint action, according to a government statement that did not provide further details.
In the northeastern Evros region, police said 102 migrants — 55 Syrians, 46 Iraqis and one Lebanese woman — were found near the Turkish border and taken to a registration center for asylum seekers. There were 53 minors in the group.
At the other end of Greece, the coast guard reported that 49 migrants were rescued from a boat that ran out of fuel, following an alert from Italian authorities. A merchant ship was diverted to pick up its occupants 175 kilometers (109 miles) off the southwestern coast of the town of Pilos.
Of that group, 47 were transferred to a coast guard ship bound for the southern port of Kalamata, while a 21-year-old woman who suffered sunburn was flown to the mainland for treatment with her companion.
In June, a battered trawler smuggling 750 people from Libya to Italy sank southwest of Pylos in one of the worst Mediterranean migrant disasters in years. Only 104 people survived, and the Greek authorities were criticized for not intervening in time.
Also Friday, the coast guard said it had arrested two Turks who allegedly transferred 27 migrants in a 30-foot (10-meter) motorboat in the Aegean Sea to the island of Euboea, near the mainland. They were detained on Thursday after a chase as they returned to Turkey after dropping off the migrants on a Euboean beach.