Greek Council for Refugees speaks with NCR about migrant crisis

by Traci Badalucco | Aug. 22, 2016
Editor's note: Bertelsen intern Traci Badalucco traveled to Italy to research the migrant crisis in the country. Look for additional reporting from Badalucco on NCRonline.org.

PALERMO, SICILY - Asylum seekers to Europe in 2015 reached a record 1.3 million, the greatest influx to the continent since 1985 and the largest in almost 25 years, according to a Pew Research Center report released Aug. 2.

Greece has borne the brunt of the influx as the main entry point to Europe, with a total of 850,000 arrivals in 2015, according to the report. And between January and June this year, 162,563 migrants entered Greece illegally by the Eastern Mediterranean route, according to Frontex, a European border agency based in Warsaw, Poland. The majority -- from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq -- arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos, according to the site.

Around 885,000 migrants arrived in Europe in 2015 by the Eastern Mediterranean -- 17 times the number in 2014, also a record year with 50,830 migrants, according to Frontex.

European countries like Greece have scrambled to meet the demand of asylum and housing requests of newly arrived migrants, creating a divide among EU member states on how to address the crisis. In the Pew survey, 94 percent of Greeks said they disapproved with its country's handling of refugees.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/greek-council-refugees-speaks-ncr-about-migrant-crisis