Greek coastguards rescue 52 people from a migrant sailboat anchored off a remote, uninhabited island.

ATHENS, GREECE — The Greek coast guard on Tuesday rescued 52 people huddled on a sailboat anchored off an uninhabited island far from the mainland, authorities said.

A private vessel initially spotted the sailboat off the small island of Falconera, officials said. The island is located between Milos and the Peloponnese in an area known for its strong currents and rough seas. The migrants were taken by coast guard ships to the mainland port of Lavrio, southeast of Athens, on Tuesday.

Separately, on Tuesday, 19 people were rescued from a dinghy that had lost direction northeast of the island of Samos, in the eastern Aegean Sea. Another 18 migrants were recovered later in the day off the same island, while the coast guard said 14 migrants were rescued Monday from a small boat off the island of Lesbos .

In June, a wrecked trawler carrying up to 750 people from Libya to Italy sank off southwest Greece in one of the worst Mediterranean migration disasters in years. Only 104 people survived, while Greek authorities were criticized for failing to intervene in time.

Greece has reported an increase in the number of people arriving into the country by sea in recent weeks. For decades, the country has been on one of the preferred migration routes to the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Its eastern islands near Turkiye have long been a major entry point, but tougher deterrence policies in recent years have reduced arrivals.

But Greece has faced intense criticism over what rights groups have called a systematic practice of illegally and clandestinely carrying out summary expulsions of new arrivals to Turkey, without allowing them to seek asylum. . The government categorically denies carrying out such evictions.