Hundreds of immigrants arrive from Turkey to the Greek islands

A total of 424 immigrants arrived from midnight to midday on Saturday in the North Aegean Islands, police said.

178 people arrived on the island of Lesbos; According to the Greek news agency AMNA, quoted by Europa Press, 114 others are on the island of Samos and 132 on Chios.

This is the second consecutive day with a significant number of immigrants arriving from Turkey on the islands.

On Friday 175 immigrants had arrived: 80 in Lesbos, 25 in Chios and 70 in Samos. More than half of the 56,000 migrants arriving on the north coast of the Mediterranean this year have been hosted in Greece, the main gateway to Europe for Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi migrants.

This figure seems small compared to the one million people who fled to northern Europe via Greece in 2015, before the European Union and Turkey concluded the deal that cut almost completely this migrant flow.

However, thousands of people are still trying to reach Europe by the Balkan route and several thousand are still on Greek territory.

The new Greek government has begun moving immigrants from the island reception centers to mainland Greece to reduce the pressure of overcrowded centers.

He also announced more intense border control and faster deportations of asylum seekers whose applications were rejected.

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