Evros

Judicial authorities in northern Greece are investigating the involvement of local lawyers in rackets smuggling migrants and refugees across Greece's Evros River border from Turkey.

Amid the steady rise in migrant and refugee arrivals in Greece via the Evros land border and the eastern Aegean islands, Migration Policy Minister Dimitris Vitsas has warned of difficult days ahead.

"There is an increase in the flows and we are fully aware of this," he told Parliament on Tuesday, admitting that "the ministry will have a tough time in the coming period."

A Syrian refugee is handed her baby aboard an old military truck used by the police for their transfer to the Nea Vyssa reception facility, near the northeastern town of Orestiada, after crossing the Evros River on Greece's border with Turkey, in this photo made available Monday.

Two men from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were detained in the area of Asprovalta, northeast of Thessaloniki, on Friday following a police chase.

The two men, aged 28 and 40, had been sat in the front of a vehicle carrying 13 migrants from Pakistan along the Egnatia Highway when officers at a police road block signaled to them to stop for an inspection.

Europe's border and coast guard forces are prepared to help Greece manage a recent spike in migrant and refugee arrivals by land and sea, European Commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud said on Friday.

Political developments in Turkey, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's large-scale crackdown against opponents in the wake of the 2016 failed coup, and the humanitarian impact of war in Syria, are intensifying migration pressure on Greece, with authorities reporting a spike in arrivals on the Aegean islands but also across Greece's northwestern border with Turkey.

Greek authorities say hundreds of refugees and other migrants have crossed the land border with Turkey in the past two days, with illegal crossings in the area increasing significantly following Turkey's military operation in northern Syria.

Migrants wait outside police headquarters in the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki on Friday. Several hundred migrants gathered outside the building waiting to be formally identified and transferred to reception centers. Most are believed to have entered the country via the Turkish land border.

More than 1,650 migrants crossed Greece's Evros river that marks the country's northeastern border with Turkey in March, despite the high water levels during winter, data from police arrests showed on Friday.

An extraordinary situation has been announced in part of northern Greece, due to the Maritsa and Arda rivers, the agencies said.

Under the threat of floods, a disaster situation has been announced across the Euros region - from Alexandroupolis to Orestiada.