Furthermore, under new rules migrants who have arrived at the Greek islands can not continue on to the mainland, meaning that camps which are already at capacity are becoming increasingly overcrowded with worsening sanitation and rising frustration at the living conditions, Save the Children says.
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The EU-Turkey deal, signed on March 18, aims to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea.
Greek authorities were alerted by a phone call to emergency services by one of the boat’s passengers, who said there were about 53 people on board and that the vessel was experiencing mechanical problems.
While 1,721 refugees arrived in Greece in May, 1,367 people have already arrived so far in August.
There are still an estimated 10,000 migrants at camps on Greek islands in the Aegean trying to avoid being returned to Turkey.
Those now arriving on Greek islands from Turkey face deportation back to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that refugees and migrants have been living in dirty, unsafe conditions for more than four months with no end in sight”, Dimmer continued.
At present, there are some 11,000 migrants on the islands, although government data says there is room for no more than 7,450.
Around 100 migrants were rescued after their boats ran aground Friday off the coast of Greece, police said, while two Syrian girls, one of them a baby, drowned off the Libyan coast. “The EU must immediately provide more resources to Greece to improve accommodation facilities, and speed up the processing of asylum claims and the relocation and family reunification programs”.
Increasing numbers of migrants have turned to alternate and more risky ways of getting to Europe following the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal and border closures on the Balkan route used past year by tens thousands of people.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 44 refugees and migrants have arrived at the Lesvos island.
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The organisation called on the European Union “to ensure that the inhumane treatment of refugees and migrants is immediately ended, particularly the vulnerable and unaccompanied children still detained in closed facilities, months after they arrived in Greece”.
