By Ahval
The number of migrants and refugees entering Greece from Turkey is on the rise, the Greek Reporter said, citing data released on Friday by the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
A total of 23,419 migrants arrived in Greece by September of this year, the site said, pointing to a 17 percent rise as compared to last year.
Another 560 people landed on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea in the first four days of October, it said, adding that the number of arrivals coming in via the Evros river – formed at the border between Greece and Turkey – has doubled compared to last year.
A total of 5,500 migrants crossed the border river to enter Greece in 2017, as compared to 12,000 in the first nine months of 2018, according to the Migration Minister Dimitris Vitsas.
Greece has brought more than 2,000 migrants to camps in in the north and center of the country, while another 19,000 are waiting on the islands to be transported.
Athens is looking to reduce the number of arrivals waiting on the Aegean islands to 10,000, according to the Greek Reporter.
The EU-Turkey refugee deal, which came into effect on March 2016, aimed to cut the influx of Syrian refugees arriving in Greece. According to the deal, the EU promised the allocation of €3 bn in aid to Turkey, which is home to 3.5 million who have fled Syria, to help migrants.
