The two men, both 31 years old, set off on their epic 15-kilometer marathon swim on Sunday evening from the Turkish coastal town of Cesme, swimming in the darkness for almost 10 hours. They arrived at Chios port around 0730 (CET) on Monday morning, where a coast guard vessel on a routine patrol picked them up, Chios' port authority said. The two migrants were immediately transferred to the reception center at the port where they received emergency first aid treatment, food and water, before being then transferred to the nearby "Skylitseio" hospital with symptoms of fatigue and hypothermia. According to a statement from the Chios port authority, the two men decided to risk their lives by swimming to Greece after they could not gather enough money to pay local traffickers in Cesme for the passage by boat to Chios. Increased traffic on Evros border Meanwhile, Greece is intensfying patrols in a response to increased migrant traffic around the Evros border with Turkey. With the weather improving due to spring, more refugees are attempting to enter Greece from Turkey on foot at various points along the land border. In a 24-hour period over the weekend, police in Evros confirmed that they arrested three smugglers, who were transporting a total of 30 refugees. They said that traffickers were possibly trying to operate mostly on the weekends in the hope that the patrols were less frequent. Evros border authorities were however carrying out constant patrols, especially at night, using thermal cameras that can pick up migrants trying to travel down the river.

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