Greece treats migrant flows as national security issue as hundreds reach its islands
A total of 48 persons were on board the boat, according to an e-mailed press statement, while about 1,000 refugees and migrants have landed on the region's islands since Sunday, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.
Delawar Nazari, 48, from Afghanistan, is one of the new arrivals on the island. He reached Lesvos on a boat with his four children and a grandchild and they have spent two nights out in the open in the cold on a beach with about 200 other people with no means, he told Xinhua on Monday.
His son-in-law was killed by the Taliban and the family left their home to join his brother in Belgium, he said. They stayed 4 months in Turkey and paid 600 euros ($668) per person to get on the boat and have been risking their lives to reach Greece, he added.
"I want to leave Greece and I want to go to Belgium," he told Xinhua.
On Sunday, the Greek government announced that no asylum application will be accepted for at least a month by those illegally entering the country.
Nazari and his family will most likely eventually follow thousands of others packed in overflowing reception centers on Lesvos or elsewhere in Greece.
