Greece is mounting its biggest and riskiest rescue effort in many years, towing a crippled freighter filled with 500-700 would-be immigrants to the island of Crete.  The Navy had to move in after getting a distress signal from the ship when its engines broke down.

“This is not a simple operation,” said a spokeswoman for the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry.  “It is the first time such a large vessel with so many people aboard has run into problems in Greek waters,” adding that most rescues in that area of the Mediterranean Sea involve “20 or 30 people in rubber dinghies”.

The origin or origins of the immigrants aboard the rustbucket called the Baris – a Kiribati-flagged ship that’s operated out of Turkey – are not yet clear.  On any given day, hundreds of people from war-torn countries in the Middle East or South Asia try to slip past patrols in the Mediterranean Sea to make it to Greece, which is one of the closest European Union states to the Middle East.

A Greek Navy frigate took the Baris under tow on Tuesday afternoon and began heading for Ierapetra in southeastern Crete.  The vessels are expected sometime early on Thursday.

“We’re doing everything we can to help these poor people, but we can only host them for a few days,” said Ierapetra Mayor Theodosios Kalantzakis.  “The state must step in and send them to proper reception facilities.”

Europe is dealing with thousands of immigrants form the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa who cross from poorly patrolled coastlines, usually in northern Africa.  Amnesty International says that more than 2,500 migrants have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean.

Pope Francis spoke about the problem earlier this week in an address before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.  “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast graveyard,” the Pope said, urging the European Union to do more to protect migrants.