Greece takes lion's share of asylum seekers

Greece has received the largest number of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean this year, taking in about 45,600 out of the 77,400 arrivals. The number is larger than that received by Spain, Italy, Malta and Cyprus combined.

A glaring illustration of the spike in flows is that the some 200 asylum seekers who were transferred from Lesvos to the mainland on Monday, as part of the government's plan to decongest island camps, were almost immediately replaced yesterday by 265 new arrivals.
According to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the highest monthly number of arrivals (10,258) since 2016 was recorded in September - mostly Afghan and Syrian families. Almost half of these arrivals (4,867) were on Lesvos.
The alarming rate of arrivals is also suggested by the fact that last week alone (September 23-29), 3,164 people crossed the sea from the...