Italy now No.1 refugee route into Europe after Greek arrivals drop

THE number of migrants arriving on the Greek islands fell by 90 per cent last month, official figures reveal.

Italy is now emerging as the main route along which African and Syrian migrants are trying to enter Europe.

About 8,370 people entered Italy from across the Mediterranean last month, the EU’s border agency Frontex said yesterday, although that was 13 per cent down on March. They used the longer and more dangerous central Mediterranean route and were largely made up of Eritreans, Egyptians and Nigerians.

In the last two days Italian coastguards have helped rescue 801 people, including many Syrians, from two boats heading from Northern Africa to Italy.

‘This might be a first sign of Syrian refugees now choosing the much more dangerous route across the Mediterranean from Northern Africa to Italy, in search of protection in Europe,’ said Edouard Rodier, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, an Oslo-based humanitarian agency.

In contrast, fewer than 2,700 were recorded crossing the Aegean to Greece from Turkey in April compared to 26,000 the previous month.

The fall to about just 90 people a day arriving on the Greek islands comes after the EU signed a £4.7billion deal with Turkey for it to take back all arrivals.

But last night the agreement was hanging by a thread because Turkey’s president is threatening to open the floodgates again in a row with Brussels. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to walk away from the agreement in a row over changes to his country’s anti-terror laws.

As part of the March deal, the EU pledged to allow Turkey’s 80million citizens to travel to Europe without visas from next month.

But in order to benefit from the relaxed travel rules, the country has to fulfil a list of 72 criteria set out by the EU including changes to laws on combating terrorism.

Brussels wants Ankara to sharply narrow its definition of ‘terror’ to prevent recent cases like the prosecution of academics and journalists for publishing ‘terror propaganda’.

The European Commission last week gave its conditional approval for Turks to get visa-free travel but only if they completed five remaining benchmarks.

However, Mr Erdogan said his country will not revise its anti-terrorism laws.