Two missing in Evros River as migrant inflows increase

As the coast guard on Wednesday searched for two people missing from a boat that sank while crossing the Evros River from Turkey earlier this week, authorities in the northeastern Greek region warned of a serious spike in illegal arrivals. 

Just on Wednesday, the Evros Regional Authority warned, 150 undocumented Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans crossed into Greece from the river border. Since the start of the year, meanwhile, some 11,000 people have been arrested for illegal entry in the area, almost three times the 3,000 or so arrests made in January-September 2017. 

The warning of increasing inflows across the land border comes just days after the Citizens’ Protection Ministry decided to call back 15 police border guards from the Evros towns of Alexandroupoli and Oresteiada to the capital. 

Turkish authorities managed to rescue four people from the Evros River wreck and retrieved five bodies.