Nearly 100 new migrant arrivals are reported in Greece, in a sign that the traffic along the Balkan route may pick up again.
MIA correspondent from Athens reports that 43 new arrivals were reported on Samos, and the rest coming to other Greek islands, making the short trip across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. The inflow of refugees and migrants from Turkey has nearly stopped, after Macedonia closed its border toward Greece earlier this year. The route used to register up to 10,000 people daily, and was used by more than a million people in 2015 and early 2016.
This flow all but stopped after the border closure, and dropped down to a dozen people a day, who would arrive despite the near certainty that they will be stuck in Greece and possibly face deportation to Turkey where they would be put at the back of the queue. But as the EU Turkey agreement faces issues with its implementation, especially with the planned returns of failed asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey, inflows have grown again to several hundred per day.