Migrants hit new monthly record in July, says EU

Spindler noted that Greece faces an economic crisis, but called on its government to help global organizations like UNHCR take a more active role in places like the overburdened island of Kos.

The surge in migrant numbers is most visible in debt-strapped Greece, which has largely failed to provide any support to the tens of thousands of migrants wallowing in squalid conditions.

A Doctors Without Borders medical team heading for the Greek island of Leros chanced across a boat carrying 40 migrants, some of whom were in the sea, picked them up and took them to Kos.

The European Union’s border agency Frontex says the number of migrants entering the EU hit another record in July, with mostly Syrians and Afghans entering Greece from Turkey. Almost 340,000 travelers were spotted at EU borders in the first half of the year, compared with 280,000 for all of 2014.

Some of those traffickers were accused of kicking the heads of the migrants when they tried to climb out of the hold as the air became unbreathable, prosecutor Michelangelo Patane said. Most request asylum but quickly leave for richer EU countries like Germany.

Nor could it be addressed by building fences, she said.

William Spindler, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said: “The pace of arrivals has been steadily increasing in recent weeks”.

Data released on Tuesday indicate that migrants make their way primarily from Syria via Greece to escape from the conflict.

Greek authorities said Tuesday they are planning to use a ferry now docked at the island of Kos to transport up to 2,500 migrants to a northern port.

On the island of Kos, which is also seeing hundreds of new arrivals every night, the situation has somewhat improved since Sunday when Greek authorities started registering and hosting Syrians on board a ferry, speeding up the registration process.

That monthly number is greater than the 43,500 who arrived in Greece for all of 2014, it said.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said at the weekend that as of Saturday, 103,000 migrants had been rescued at sea and brought to Italy in operations coordinated by the Italian coast guard.

According to Turkish government figures, seen by AFP, the Turkish coastguards have rescued nearly 18,300 migrants in the Aegean Sea in the last month and more than 5,275 in the last week alone.