Migrant and refugee arrivals to Greece from Turkey have risen sharply, just over a week after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement intended to cut off the flow and as hundreds marched through central Athens to protest that deal.
The demonstrators included human rights activists, students and migrants from among the thousands stranded in Greece by recent border closures across the Balkans.
Greek authorities recorded 766 new arrivals between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, up from 192 the previous day.
Most entered the country via the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos.
Italy reported an even larger jump on Tuesday, when officials there said 1350 people - mostly from Africa - were rescued from small boats taking a longer migration route across the Mediterranean as the weather warmed up.
The EU Commission said on Tuesday that flows from Turkey to Greek islands had reduced in the last week, with only 1000 people arriving compared to an average of 2000 a day in the last couple of months.
It was not clear why numbers had dropped, but the Aegean Sea had been hit with bad weather and gale force winds, making the journey from Turkey on small rubber boats even more dangerous than usual.
Under the deal in effect since March 20, migrants and refugees who arrive in Greece from Turkey will be subject to being sent back once they have been registered and their individual asylum claim processed.
Returns are due to begin from April 4, and for each Syrian returned from the Greek islands to Turkey, one will be sent the other way for direct resettlement in Europe.
Human rights groups and some governments have expressed concerns about the legality of the scheme.
"We should be under no illusion that the EU-Turkey deal will bring an end to the refugee crisis," Jane Waterman, of aid group International Rescue Committee, said on Wednesday.
Following the Balkan border closure that preceded the Turkey deal, an estimated 51,000-plus refugees and migrants, among them Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and others fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Asia, were left stranded in Greece.
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