A total 17 suspected smugglers have been arrested over the past week near the northeastern land border with Turkey ferrying nearly 100 migrants in cars westward, data showed Monday, as Greece figures as the top gateway for irregular migration into Europe.
Police said the arrests were made in the region of Thrace near the Evros River, which runs along most of the border. In one case, a suspected smuggler was driving a car with 11 migrants squashed into it, while in another a truck carrying 13 migrants crashed into a car and six of the migrants required hospital treatment.
Eleven years after Europe’s 2015 migration crisis, Greece has once again become the main destination for people from the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent or Africa seeking a better life in the European Union – although the numbers involved now are much smaller. So far this year, nearly 18,000 have entered the country illegally, according to United Nations data. Italy follows with nearly 16,000 arrivals and Spain with 14,500.
In 2015, up to a million people entered the EU, mostly through Greece.
Most of the people now reaching Greece depart Libya, in north Africa, in small boats that cross the Mediterranean Sea to the southern island of Crete. Since January 1, more than 9,000 have come that way.
