The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has released the latest figures concerning the arrivals of migrants and refugees to Greece via Aegean islands, for the period 13 Jan 2019 – 19 January 2020.
According to the UNHCR report, this week, 577 people arrived on the Aegean islands, an increase from last week’s 507 arrivals but a decrease from last year’s 723 arrivals during the same period. The average daily arrivals on all islands this week equalled 82, compared to 72 in the previous week.
Present Population on the Islands
Some 41,000 refugees and asylum-seekers reside on the Aegean islands. The majority of the population on the Aegean islands are from Afghanistan (48%), Syria (19%) and Palestine (6%).
Women account for 22% of the population, and children for 33% of whom more than 6 out of 10 are younger than 12 years old.
Approximately 15% of the children are unaccompanied or separated, mainly from Afghanistan.
Entry Points by Sea
Lesvos received the highest number of arrivals (286), followed by the Dodecanese Islands (151), Samos (105) and Chios with (35) people.
This week, 948 asylum-seekers departed, once authorised by the authorities, from the Aegean islands to the mainland. Of those, 555 were transferred by the Government with the support of UNHCR to open reception facilities/sites and to ESTIA apartments currently managed by UNHCR that are to be handed over to the Government.
