Why pay thousands of euros to rogue migrant traffickers for a dangerous sea journey aboard a rickety vessel to reach EU territory when you can just taken a … short ferry boat ride to the antechamber of the “promised land”?

According to a Telegraph article from the eastern Aegean island of Mytilene, that’s exactly what foreign nationals — most identifying as displaced residents of war-torn Syrians — are doing: boarding small passenger ferries from the Turkish coast and comfortably showing up at a Greek island to apply for political asylum.

According to the Telegraph’s piece, “…Residents of Greece’s eastern Aegean islands say ferries carrying hundreds of Syrian migrants at a time are making the short hop from Turkey’s coast, with Turkish officials making no attempt to stop them boarding.

“In what appears to be yet another gap in Europe’s border controls, the migrants have no need to risk their lives in rickety people-smuggling boats or pay exorbitant fees to smuggling gangs.

Instead, for a few Turkish lira, they can simply board regular passenger services at ports on Turkey’s south-west coast, taking them on to holiday islands such as Lesbos where local authorities have little choice but to accommodate them.

The Telegraph adds: “Andreas Karasarinidis, a Greek student from Athens who recently journeyed from Turkey to the Lesbos port of Mytilini, told the Telegraph that he had been astonished at the number of Syrian refugees travelling as fellow passengers.”

“Out of 250 people, only 40 were Greeks,” he said. “The rest were from Syria, and very happy to be arriving in Greece. They were taking photos on their mobile cameras, obviously relieved to be safe. Greece is an open door. The port is swamped with them.”