Greece swamped after Turkey coup

THE number of migrants arriving on the Greek islands has doubled since the failed military coup in Turkey.

More than 1,170 have crossed the Aegean in the fortnight after the attempted putsch, up from 560 in the two weeks before.

The surge came as Turkey threatened to aggravate the migrant crisis by pulling out of its £5billion deal with the EU to help tackle it. Brussels in March agreed to hand over the cash and ease visa restrictions on travellers from Turkey if it took back all those arriving on the Greek islands. But Turkey yesterday vowed to rip up the deal unless its 80million citizens get fully visafree travel to the EU. At least 290 people died in the coup attempt and the Turkish president has threatened to bring back capital punishment in the aftermath.

It is not known if the rise in migrants crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands has been prompted by the violence itself or because they know it will be more difficult for the EU to return them there now.

Meanwhile thousands continue to cross daily from North Africa to Italy. The Italian coastguard said 6,500 were rescued from Thursday to Sunday with five bodies found.