Migrant traffickers set course for holiday islands
There was another spike in arrivals of migrants and refugees in Greece in August as the points of entry and trafficking routes have changed.
Migrant flows from the beginning of the year until July increased by 99% compared to the corresponding period in 2023. More specifically, 23,204 irregular migrants reached Greece – the islands mainly but also via the Evros outpost – from January until July, while in the same period last year the figure came to 11,672 – i.e. about half.
Nikos Panagiotopoulos, the minister of migration and asylum, credited the surge to the “good weather” in a statement on Wednesday. He also expects higher migrant flows in September and October, if the weather remains fair. “No one disputes that there is a problem but much of what is heard is exaggerated,” he noted.
Especially concerning is the fact that since June a large number of boats from Turkey have been arriving at southern Aegean islands with a high volume of tourists, like Rhodes, Tilos and Symi, rather than islands where landings were previously recorded and where reception and identification centers were created.
The traffickers’ routes have also reportedly shifted. “They now use speed boats which are more expensive, use more fuel and can carry fewer people. Consequently, they choose the closest possible distances,” ministry sources said, noting that it is much more difficult to track a boat when it takes only six minutes to travel the distance from the Turkish coast to Tilos, and the boats are operated by professional traffickers and not by one of the passengers. The islands have received the most migrants and refugees, with a 140% increase compared to the outpost of Evros, where the increase is of the order of 3%.
Despite the large number of arrivals in the last two years, the occupancy of the facilities throughout Greece remains at low levels as many people choose to move once their asylum claim is approved.
