Rescue teams were working into the night yesterday to airlift to safety a group of 160 illegal immigrants who were shipwrecked on a desert islet in the southern Aegean.

The Merchant Marine Ministry, which handled the operation, said 153 of the migrants — all male — had been flown by helicopter or carried by open-sea rescue boats to the island of Milos by sunset, while the effort was continuing.

Most of the migrants, whose wooden boat ran aground during a storm late on Sunday night on the islet of Ananes, 10 miles southwest of Milos, were in good health, while five were being treated for minor injuries and hypothermia.

It was unclear whether any people-smugglers were among the 160 stranded on the islet. The nationality of the migrants was not made public.

Coast guard officers arrested 3,047 illegal immigrants and 124 smugglers in Greek waters last year.