MOSCOW (Sputnik) — One ship, with some 1,749 passengers on board, arrived in Piraeus late on Tuesday. Another ship, carrying some 2,500 migrants that also departed from Lesbos, was due to arrive early on Wednesday, BBC reported Wednesday.
The European Union is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of migrants who are fleeing conflict-torn and poverty-stricken countries in the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as some South Asian nations.
Many of them travel via Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos, where, according to local media reports, 17,500 migrant arrivals were registered in the last week.
According to preliminary data collected by the EU border agency Frontex and published on Tuesday, more than 23,000 migrants arrived in Greece by sea last week, nearly 50 percent more than in the previous week.
In total, more than 160,000 people have arrived in Greece so far this year, which surpasses the total for last year.
