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.
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This return was followed by another six immigrants who were deported from Lesbos to the Turkish port of Dikili on board a boat chartered by the EU Frontex agency.
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. It was not immediately clear what type of boat it was, from where they had set sail where they were headed.
Of those who arrived in the last 24 hours, the vast majority 139 people reached the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos. Limited movement to the Greek mainland is also putting added pressure on the congested camps on the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos.
Since the EU-Turkey deal came into effect on March 20, the flow has slowed down to just over 10,000 people – 482 of whom have been returned.
In March, the European Union pledged to work towards visa-free travel for Turks to Europe’s Schengen zone in exchange for Turkey’s assistance in curbing the number of migrants crossing from the country over to the Greek islands.
The average number of refugees arriving each day in Greece is at the highest level since May – with thousands of children at risk in congested camps, according to Save the Children.
With the Balkan route closed, increasing numbers of migrants have turned to more risky routes.
The 35 migrants got arrested and are held at Hellenic Coast Guard’s building in Mykonos main port.
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