At the climax of Europe’s recent migration crisis, more than 7,000 people landed every day at the Greek islands that face Turkey. Orange life vests covered the beaches of northern Lesbos while multiplying numbers of new arrivals slept in fields and at the island’s main port.
That was the case during the fall of 2015.
Nowadays, with international efforts underway to block smugglers and their human cargo on one of the Mediterranean Sea routes to Europe, smugglers are finding alternatives. As a result, Spain is set to overtake Greece this year as a key entry point for migrants, although Italy far and away outpaces the two other countries.
Here’s a look at relocation trends so far this year, based on numbers from the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Refugee Agency.
GREEK RELIEF
The number of refugees and migrants making it to Greece fell dramatically last year after several Balkan countries tightened their borders, closing off a main land route migrants were using to reach their destinations in Europe.
An agreement with the European Union brokered with Turkey to deter people from setting off for Greece also has largely held, despite the ongoing political crisis in that country. NATO-backed patrolling in the Aegean Sea has helped with enforcement of the agreement.
The number of people arriving to Greek islands dropped to 173,450 in 2016 after peaking at more than 850,000 the year before, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. So far this year, 12,440 had arrived as of Aug. 10, the agency said.
Read full story here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Nzeemin License: CC-BY-SA
Source: AP
