Migrant transfers from overcrowded Greek camps outnumbered by new arrivals

Greece’s eastern islands are struggling to cope with a surge in arrivals of migrants and asylum-seekers that has undermined efforts to ease overcrowding at refugee camps.

The number of people reaching Lesbos, Samos, and other Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea is the highest since the EU reached a €6-billion agreement in 2016 to prevent migrants from leaving the coast of Turkey and heading to the EU, AP said.

Dinghies carrying migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere are reaching the islands despite enhanced patrols by the coast guard, supported by the Greek military, in recent weeks.

The government promised to accelerate transfers to the mainland and expand the network of camps there, but those transfers have so far been outnumbered by new arrivals on the islands.