Greece: 1350 refugees arrived on the Aegean Islands at the weekend

In August and September, as many migrants as in 2016 have not fled to Greece. And last weekend, more than 1350 migrants arrived on the Greek Aegean Islands.

The Greek coast guard rescued according to own data between Friday and Monday morning 658 people from distress. 730 other migrants reached the islands on their own. In the port of Piraeus on the Greek mainland arrived on Monday 179 asylum seekers, which were then distributed to accommodations.

To relieve the crowded refugee camps, the Greek government announced in early October the gradual transfer of 20,000 people to the mainland by the end of December. More than 32,000 asylum seekers are currently awaiting registration in catastrophic conditions on the islands.

Greek authorities are also accused of illegally deporting migrants to Turkey. Turkish documents available to SPIEGEL describe how refugees should have been returned to Turkey against their will, without any chance of applying for asylum.

In the Greek mainland, the transfer of refugees has recently provoked resistance among the population. Several towns and villages had organized demonstrations against immigration. At the end of October, villagers in northern Greece even bombed refugee buses with stones and forced them to turn back.

The racist violence incident monitoring network warned last week against "increasing racist and xenophobic incidents" against migrants.