Over a dozen migrant boats landed onGreece's Lesbos island within minutes of each other on Thursday in the firstsuch mass arrival from neighbouring Turkey in three years, officials said,prompting Greece to summon Turkey's ambassdor.
In 2015, at the height of Europe'smigrant crisis, thousands of people were arriving on Greek shores every day.The numbers dropped dramatically after the European Union and Ankaraimplemented a deal in March 2016 to cut off the flow.
Of the 56,000 refugees and migrantsarriving in Europe this year, nearly half have been to a handful of Greekislands, and the number has risen in recent months, United Nations data shows.
Sixteen boats carrying about 650people reached Lesbos on Thursday, 13 of those in under an hour, according topolice and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
"It surprised us. We haven'tseen this type of simultaneous arrivals in this number since 2016," saidBoris Cheshirkov, spokesman for UNHCR in Greece.
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendiassummoned the Turkish ambassador on Friday to "express Greece's deepdiscontent" with the rise in flows from Turkey, diplomatic sources said.The ambassador said Turkey was "committed" to the EU-Turkey deal andthat its policy had not changed, the sources said.
More than a million migrants andrefugees, many fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa,arrived in the European Union in 2015. Turkey was one of the main launchpoints.
Most of Thursday's arrivals in Lesboswill be taken to the Moria camp, Europe's largest migrant reception centre,holding about four times more people than it was designed to.
"It's a cause for concern,"Cheshirkov said.
Conditions at Moria have repeatedly been described by humanitarianorganisations as overcrowded, unsafe and inhumane.
