In total, Greece registered the names of 154,102 migrants at its land and sea borders. “About 50,000 of them tried to enter Greece in August alone,” Mitarachi told Eleftheros Typos newspaper.
Controlling Greece’s external borders is one of the priorities of the conservative Greek government, including in the run-up to elections scheduled for next year.
Greece is often the country through which refugees from Africa or the Middle East try to enter the European Union. Many try to reach Greece via Turkey: either via the Evros River or via the dangerous Aegean Sea.
Greece has often been accused of illegally pushing migrants back to Turkey, but Athens has always denied these practices.