(AFP) EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Thursday there was an “urgent need” to stop illegal departures from Turkey as Greece struggles to cope with a sharp increase in the refugee arrivals.
“Irregular arrivals to Greece increased over the past weeks and months,” Avramopoulos told a news conference in Ankara, alongside the Turkish and German interior ministers.
“There is an urgent need to further strengthen the prevention and detection of irregular departures from Turkey,” he said.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced on Tuesday that arrivals by sea from Turkey to Greece, mostly of Afghan and Syrian families, increased to 10,258 in September.
