Reportedly, the increasing number of people seeking for resettlement is not new in the country. The agency estimates that about 219,000 migrants and refugees made those crossings previous year.
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“That makes it the highest total for any month to date, and roughly the same as the entire total for 2014”, Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told AFP.
More than 218,000 refugees crossed the Mediterranean last month, almost the same number as in the whole of 2014.
Europe is facing record refugee arrivals. “It’s a major challenge, it’s a humanitarian challenge and it can not be done by Greece on its own”.
Dijsselbloem says that for a few countries, “there is a risk of, let’s say, derailing the budget, getting off track”.
The vessel the migrants were travelling on sank in an unknown location north of the island.
On Monday, the tragic situation was exacerbated, as 11 refugees, a lot of them children, drowned in the Aegean Sea while trying to reach Lesbos. Germany’s government said the centers should begin functioning this month. The route from Turkey to Greece, in particular, is short but risky.
Usually at this time of year, migration across the Mediterranean tends to slow down. The flow of migrants trying to reach Europe through the Russian Arctic slowed dramatically this week. “And then people would feel safer and it would be better organized”, he said. A handful of islands in the eastern Aegean, including Lesbos and Samos, have borne the brunt of the influx. More than two million have travelled to Turkey, about one million to Lebanon and 600,000 to Jordan. Numerous deceased have washed up on the shores of Turkey’s Lesbos island.
The wave of people fleeing conflict and poverty to come to Europe is continuing unabated despite worsening weather conditions.
There were near-gale force winds blowing in the Aegean at the weekend. More talks between Merkel, Seehofer and Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the Social Democrats who are in a grand coalition with the CDU/CSU, were planned for Thursday, Seibert said. Around 50,000 people arrive to the islands every week.
“Yesterday we held 5 funerals, but there are still 55 bodies at the morgue”, the mayor continued.
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Galinos told the media that authorities are working on fast-tracking procedures for creating new burial ground next to the main cemetery.
