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Refugee arrivals to Lesvos island in Greece decline dramatically

Xinhua, May 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

The arrivals of refugees and migrants to the Greek island of Lesvos is dropping quickly after the implementation of the refugee deal between EU and Ankara to stem the influx from Turkey, local authorities said on Tuesday.

The latest statistics of UNHCR, the Greek Asylum Service, local police and Coast Guard support the statement of Greek Deputy Minister of Defense Dimitris Vitsas who told the national broadcaster ERT on Monday that the refugee arrivals to the Greek islands from Turkey have been annihilated. He added that improvement on asylum procedures has been noted in recent weeks.

On Tuesday Lesvos, the island which has received the bulk of refugee and migrant arrivals to Greece since early 2015, counted 42 arrivals, while the Camp of Moria and the Camp of Kara-Tepe host 4,146 refugees and migrants, according to the local police.

Meanwhile the Committee of Asylum which is in Moria has to examine 3,652 requests of asylum. Under the March 18 EU-Turkey deal people who reached Greek shores after March 20 and are not eligible for asylum in Greece will be returned to Turkey.

According to UNHCR, the total arrivals on Lesvos in 2016 until May 8 were 90,126. The average daily arrivals during May are 24, while in April it was 59.

The number of arrivals dropped sharply after the EU-Turkey: In January and February there were 42,601 and 31,416 arrivals respectively, while in March and April, the number dropped to 14,155 and 1,766 respectively. In April 2015, the island recorded 5,440 arrivals.

According to the Greek police and Greek Coast Guard, in March 50 percent of the arrivals were from Syria, while 24 percent were from Afghanistan and 9 percent were from Iraq. For the same month, about 40 percent of the arrivals were men, 22 percent were women and 38 percent were children. Endit