22,500 migrants registered on Greece's Lesbos this week

Some 22,500 refugees and migrants arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos have been registered by officials since Monday evening, police told AFP late Thursday.

Lesbos is one of several Greek islands in the Aegean Sea that have been struggling with a huge influx of migrants setting sail from Turkey, many of them Syrian refugees.

Authorities opened an emergency registration centre on the island on Monday evening to clear a huge backlog of migrants that had built up as officials struggled to keep up with the pace of arrivals.

Many were stuck on the island for days or even weeks as without their papers the migrants are unable to catch a ferry to the Greek mainland and travel on to other destinations in Europe.

Thousands were forced to camp on the streets in squalid conditions, and there were repeated clashes as riot police struggled to control huge crowds pressing forward to get onboard ferries.

By Wednesday the backlog had largely cleared, but rubber dinghies carrying 40 to 60 people have continued to arrive at a regular pace along the island's northern coast, opposite Turkey.

Source: AFP