Greece adopts tougher measures to deal with new migrant spike

The Greek government announced it will introduce a set of new actions in order to deal with a renewed migrant flow. The move comes as over a dozen migrant boats simultaneously arrived on the island of Lesbos from Turkey on Thursday, the first such arrival in three years. These new arrivals have increased the pressure on the already overcrowded migrant camps on Greek islands.

The new measures include moving migrants to the Greek mainland, increased border surveillance in cooperation with EU border patrol agency Frontex and NATO, as well as stronger police patrols to identify rejected asylum seekers that remain in the country illegally.

The government plan will also shorten the asylum process by abolishing second stage appeals when an asylum request is rejected, resulting in immediate deportation.