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                     Rough Seas Cut Migrant Flow to Greece

   by Jeff Swicord

   More migrants are continuing to arrive in Greece and the European Union
   from Turkey, but rough winter seas have deterred some from attempting
   the dangerous journey in small boats not designed for such trips.

   The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said the number of migrants
   arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos had dropped dramatically in the
   past week.

   Patric Mansour, UNCHR's chief of mission on Lesbos, reported 2,500
   arrivals on one recent day, but "at most we had 6,600 crossing on
   Lesbos from the Turkish side."

   Mansour expressed concern about the use of cheaply made smugglers'
   boats and their ability to survive the three-kilometer trip from Turkey
   in harsher weather.

   The boats are "made for lakes and rivers -- still water, not made for
   sea," he said.

   The boats, with small, 15- to 20-horsepower engines, are designed to
   hold eight to 10 people, but smugglers pack them with up to 60
   migrants, each one paying as much as $1,500 to make the trip.

   The smugglers do not come along. They designate a driver, point out a
   direction and send them on their way.

   "And if an engine fails, they can drift," Mansour said.

   Migrant Ammar Gazmati of Damascus, Syria, said some smugglers were
   overloading the boats at gunpoint.

   "When the people don't want to get into the boat, they force them by
   the gun," he said. "That happened last night with a group of people.
   The boat stopped in the water, and the coast guard helped them."

   Lesbos is a quick stop for the migrants. Those at a registration camp
   near Karatepes, outside the port city of Mytilene, said they had been
   there for only a day. They rest, then pack into cabs for a ride into
   town.

   There, they buy ferry tickets to Athens. Osama, an electrical engineer
   from Baghdad, said he was excited to continue his journey.

   "We have our documents and we are going to move now," he said. The
   goal, he said, was to get to Germany, but "then we will check our
   plans."

   UNHCR officials stressed that the decline in numbers of migrants was
   temporary. They said if there was any improvement in sea conditions,
   the numbers would rise again.
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   90322.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/rough-seas-cut-migrant-flow-greece/2990322.html