Boat refugees head for Crete

Officials and Red Cross volunteers prepared an indoor basketball stadium as interim shelter in the southern Cretan port town of Ierapetra on Wednesday ahead of the migrants' expected arrival.

Greek officials said the Baris, which lost propulsion on Tuesday, was being towed slowly in poor sea conditions and would arrive after nightfall, probably early Thursday.

They said it was unclear which Mediterranean location had been the departure point for the 77-meter (254-foot) vessel, which was sailing under the flag of the Pacific nation of Kiribati.

Unprecedented, says mayor

Ierapetra Mayor Theodosis Kalantzakis said his port town faced a "major problem."

"This has never happened before in Greece," he said. "A year or two ago, we had to accommodate 140 migrants ... but we have never had a situation involving 700 people."

Kalantzakis said medics would screen those arriving for infections such as Ebola.

Red Cross volunteer Nikos Nestorakis said the "main concern" was to register the migrants and provide shelter under the "best conditions possible."

Risky journey

Most of the tens of thousands of people who pay smuggling gangs and risk the journey across the Mediterranean in often unseaworthy craft each year end up in Italy.

EU regulations stipulate that refugees seeking asylum must apply in the first country they enter.

About 80 percent of refugees fleeing war-torn Syria reach Greece via its eastern Aegean Sea islands, according to Doctors Without Borders.

Data provided by Amnesty International show that since the start of 2014 more than 2,500 people have drowned or gone missing - about 1.7 percent of the estimated 150,000 who attempt the journey.

Ipj/mkg (AP, AFP, dpa)