MSF reports quicker pace of migrant arrivals in Greece via land from Turkey

More than 10,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Greece from Turkey through the northern Evros river crossing in the first half of 2018, a nongovernmental organization said Thursday. This is a quicker pace of arrivals compared with 2017, a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Greece official told Reuters. The figure outstrips an estimated 7,500 of arrivals from Evros in 2017 overall. “The number of incoming refugees and migrants exceeded 10,000 in the first six months of the year,” field coordinator for Greek MSF Ifigenia Anastasiadi said, citing police data. Nearly 1 million migrants crossed from Turkey to Greece’s islands in 2015, but that route all but closed after the EU and Ankara agreed a deal to stop the flow in March 2016.