In what appeared to be an immediate implementation of the EU-Turkey deal, Turkish authorities on Monday said they had broken up a human trafficking ring and detained 1,300 migrants before they crossed the sea.
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The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe fell by more than a third last month, due to poor weather and a Turkish crackdown on traffickers, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The people arrested, mainly Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians, were hiding in forests and on small beaches, Turkish press agencies reported.
Most of them are fleeing conflict and violence in places like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, and the vast majority of them – 738,000 – have landed on the Greek islands before moving up through the continent towards northern Europe.
During the sweep, authorities also discovered a body which had washed up on the shore, suspected to be that of a migrant.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 220,000 people arrived in Greece by sea in October and more than 220 persons died in the waters between Turkey and Greece that month.
“The numbers of women and children continue to climb, which is for us quite honestly something of a surprise, and we can only assume that this is a sense of the despair that families are going through”, said Sarah Crowe, UN spokeswoman.
Tukish Prime Minister Ahmet Dvutoglu (L), European Council President Donald Tusk (C) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (R) speak to reporters at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Nov. 29, 2015.
While the UNHCR said that 3,425 migrants arrived in Greece on Sunday, compared to less than 2,000 on Friday and Saturday, Kathimerini said that more than 5,000 arrived in Lesbos alone in the past two days. “It is often said that we must be open to Syrian refugees”.
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The crackdown occurred just hours after the European Union agreed to give Turkey €3 billion (£2 billion) in exchange for help holding back refugees trying to make their way to Europe.
