Concerns after migrant arrivals via Evros double

Arrivals of irregular migrants via Greece’s land border with Turkey doubled on Tuesday, Kathimerini understands, with police intercepting more than 400 people in the border areas of Tychero and Ferres within 24 hours. 

The influx was significantly greater than in previous days when border guards stopped between 200 and 250 asylum seekers daily. 

Meanwhile, there are reports that large groups of migrants, numbering between 500 and 1,000, are heading toward Turkey’s Aegean coastline.

However, aircraft monitoring Turkish shores as part of an operation by the European Union’s border agency Frontex have not confirmed these reports. 

Sources at the Citizens’ Protection Ministry in Athens attribute the recent rise in arrivals to the onset of summer, when traffickers traditionally increase their activity, rather than to any organized push such as that in early March.