Paris attacks deter migrant smugglers

A man is rescued as he arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday afternoon
A man is rescued as he arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday afternoon
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The number of refugees arriving on the Greek islands in the Aegean all but dried up after the terrorist attacks in Paris as people-traffickers anticipated that they would be subjected to tighter scrutiny.

Officials on Lesbos said they had recorded no arrivals between Saturday and Monday — the first such hiatus in three years.

This year some half a million refugees and migrants have landed on Lesbos, Leros and Kos off Turkey’s coast and have been the main transit point for those fleeing the four-year conflict in Syria.

In Lesbos, which has recorded about 300,000 arrivals, officials complained last month that so many bodies were washing up on their beaches that they were running out of space to bury them.

“Now we’re recording hardly any