Author: infomigrants.int | 10 December 2019
he number of migrants and refugees stuck on the Greek islands has peaked at above 40,000. The Greek government hopes that the introduction of new laws next year will help bring the numbers down — by deporting many asylum seekers back to Turkey.
The Hellenic Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection announced that over the past weekend, the number of migrants stuck on the islands in the eastern Aegean Sea had officially reached 40,313.
Just six months ago in April 2019, the number of migrants living in camps on the islands was roughly a third of its current magnitude, with 14,000 migrants reported as living there.
In a bid to manage and mitigate the dimensions of the situation, the Greek government has transferred 10,000 migrants and refugees to camps on the Greek mainland over the past few months, and plans to move another 10,000 people by the end of the year.