The operations took place on Wednesday night and in the early hours of Thursday, and involved two vessels of the GNR’s Coastal Control Unit (UCC), it said.

In the first situation, in Samos, a GNR patrol discovered a rubber raft carrying 37 migrants (13 children, eight women and 16 men) some two nautical miles out of the port of Pythagorio, in Greece.

Subsequently, south of the island of Chios, the GNR were alerted by the Greek authorities of the existence of a small rubber raft, which they found to be have 39 migrants on board, including 21 children between 5 months and 17 years old.

Then, in the early hours of Thursday, the GNR’s terrestrial maritime surveillance team detected another small rubber raft south of the island of Samos, overcrowded and adrift, on with 37 migrants on board: 15 children, 8 women and 14 men. The team immediately alerted the GNR vessel in the area, which managed to rescue the people on board.

This year GNR guards on mission in the Aegean have carried out more than 721 patrols, corresponding to more than 5,000 hours, travelled 63,000 kms and covered 4,600 nautical miles. They have intercepted 207 vessels and assisted 1,842 migrants.

The operations are part of a mission for the European Union’s Frontex border agency.