A total of 53,661 Mideast refugees and migrants – recent arrivals over the past year and a half – remained stranded in Greece, a government coordinating body set up to deal with the refugee/migrant crisis announced.
The updated figures, as of Wednesday morning, showed 7,150 third country nationals (refugees, irregular migrants, would-be asylum seekers etc) on various eastern Aegean islands, mostly on Lesvos (Lesbos).
Nearly 15,000 remained in the greater Athens area, of which 3,805 were still camped out at the port of Piraeus’ passenger terminals.
There were 29,250 in northern Greece, of which more than 10,000 remained at a makeshift camp erected directly on the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM).
Meanwhile, Greek coast guard officers rescued another 120 third country nationals in a sea region between the islands of Samos and Lesvos overnight, the latest attempt by smugglers to ferry third world migrants onto Greek territory from neighboring Turkey.
