Tens of dozens of dinghy boats crammed with refugees and migrants continued unabated to arrive on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos.

Men, women and children could be seen waving and cheering on the dinghies as they approached the shore where volunteers were waiting for them with water and thermal blankets.

The migrants, soaked and exhausted, disembarked near the beach of Skala Sikamnias after having made the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey.

A kaleidoscope of emotions was unveiled on the pebbled beach as some refugees took pictures of themselves smiling and forming the victory sign while others were hugging and crying as they rested on the ground before continuing on the next leg of their journey, a 60 kilometer walk to the city of Mytilene where they will be registered.

They were the latest wave of at least 430,000 refugees and migrants, a record number, to have taken rickety boats across the Mediterranean to Europe this year, 309,000 via Greece, according to International Organisation for Migration figures.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees, primarily Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and Africans fleeing war, repression and poverty, have crossed the narrow but precarious sea channel between Turkey and Greece's eastern Aegean islands this year, mainly in flimsy and overcrowded inflatable boats.

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