Migrants waiting in Turkey to cross to Lesbos

An Afghan family has joined the ranks of people willing to risk an often perilous journey across the Aegean sea to the Greek isles.

Muhammed Sadik Muhammedi told The Associated Press that his wife and children managed to cross into Greece from Turkey through the northwester land border, but turned back after they claimed they were mistreated by Greek security forces.

Muhammedi said he brought his family to Turkey's Aegean coast to attempt the sea crossing.

Greek islands near the Turkish coast saw a major increase in arrivals from Turkey. The coast guard said that in the 24 hours, 977 people had reached the islands in dinghies, most of them on Lesbos but also on Chios, Samos and some of the smaller islands.

In Lesbos, local anger at the migration situation boiled over, with some residents preventing people, including young children and babies, from disembarking from a dinghy that reached a small harbour.

Elsewhere on the island, they prevented buses from taking new arrivals to Lesbos' overcrowded migrant camp in Moria.

Greek police fired tear gas at migrants trying to push into Greece from Turkey through the land border Monday, and a child died when a dinghy capsized during a sea crossing, after Turkey opened its frontier for migrants and refugees to enter Europe.

The child's death, reported by the Greek coast guard, was the first since thousands of migrants began massing at the frontiers with Greece over the weekend after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced an easing of restrictions on those wishing to cross to Europe.

Turkey's announcement, initially by an official on Thursday, marked a dramatic departure from a previous policy of containing the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants in Turkey. Erdogan apparently aims to pressure Europe into offering Turkey more support in dealing with the fallout from the Syrian war to its south.