Greece is finally beginning to chip away with more speed into the backlog of asylum applications as the country battles to cope with its ongoing problems relating to refugees and migrants.
While there are still over 62,000 people in various locations across the Greek mainland and the islands stranded in camps awaiting the results of their applications for asylum, the authorities are starting to reduce that number quicker than ever. According to the latest figures from the migration policy ministry, authorities have processed around 97 percent of a backlog list of approximately 84,000 claims which were submitted up to 2011 under the auspices of the previous legislation. An amendment to Law 4375/2016 that came along with the EU-Turkey deal is seen as the main reason for the expedited procedures.
More arrivals on the islands from Turkey
Despite Greece's best efforts to gain a measure of control over the situation, the situation is not helped by the continuing flow of migrants attempting to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey. Another 128 people were rescued at sea over the weekend. A total of 54 were pulled from a rubber dinghy off the coast of the Oinousses islands in the eastern Aegean, while 74 more people were rescued from another rubber boat near the eastern Aegean island of Chios.
Last month the European Commission allocated another aid package of 220 million euros to help Greece cope with handling the thousands of migrants and refugees around the country.