About 200 migrants have waded across the Evros River in Northern Greece from Turkey on a single morning, authorities have said. The number is unusually large, they added.
Police said the migrants were mostly families with children and were found early Tuesday after making their way to the side of a road near a local highway. They told authorities they had waded across the Evros River running along the border because the water level was low.
There was no immediate information on their nationalities or how many children were among the group, associated press reported.
However, according to Greek media, the majority of them are from Iraq.
Police sent buses to pick up the new arrivals and transport them to police stations to be registered.
Authorities have reported an increase in the number of people crossing the Greek-Turkish land border in recent months.
More than 12,000 people crossed the Evros river into Greece in 2018.
Hours earlier, another group of migrants who had recently illegally crossed into Greece occupied one of the main land roads in the area of Orestiada.
According to local media evrosnews, dozens of people among them many women and children sat on the road thus blocking the traffic.
After several hours, the migrants accepted the offer and got on buses that transferred them to the First Identification Center at the borders or to Orestiada.
It was the second protest incident of such kind in two weeks. According to local media it is the traffickers who incite such protests.
Migrants illegally crossing into Greece seek to get arrested in order to be registered and apply for asylum, thus securing an extended staying in Greece.
Meanwhile, a migrant was seriously injured by a train near Alexandropolis. The man had reportedly fallen asleep on the railway tracks when he was hit by the passing train. Such incidents are frequent and often end in deaths.
