Author: Philip Chrysopoulos | greekreporter.com | 19 November 2018
A total 42,305 refugees coming from Turkey to Greece applied for refugee status in Europe in 2017, according to the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON).
According to ESPON data, 204,718 refugees entered the European Union from other parts of the world last year. Of that number, a total of 42,305 asylum seekers crossed to Greece from Turkey and 118,962 people crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.
In comparison to recent years, this was a great decrease from previous numbers. In 2015 alone, at the culmination of the refugee crisis, 1.3 million asylum applications were submitted to the EU, chiefly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syrian nationals. The number of arrivals fell sharply in 2016, mainly due to the EU — Turkey agreement which has limited the flow of migrants through the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans. Read more>>>