Greek Coast Guard is being stretched to its limits with at least 1,728 illegal immigrants being rescued by over the past 3 days around the eastern Aegean islands of Samothrace, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonisi, Kos and Megisti. The ‘irregular’ immigrants were collected in 66 coast guard operations that took place between Friday- August 14 and Monday-August 17. Similar search and rescue operations have increased exponentially since people from war-torn areas and elsewhere in Asia were smuggled into Greece via the Turkish coast.