Ankara, (IINA) – The number of refugees trying to reach Europe by crossing by sea from Turkey to Greece has fallen sharply since the EU-Turkey refugee deal came into effect last week, Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkey and the EU reached an agreement, which came into effect on March 20 to stop refugee flows into Europe.

Under the deal, refugees trying to enter Europe illegally will not get a chance to be resettled in the EU, as all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands as of March 20 will be returned to Turkey.

On March 18 and 19, before the deal took effect, nearly 2,000 refugees were caught in the Aegean Sea. However, on March 20-27, only 795 refugees were captured.

In 2015, more than 800,000 refugees crossed into Europe, and the Coast Guard captured 91,611 illegal immigrants, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

Over 5,500 refugees were captured this January, 8,739 captured in February and 7,842 were caught in March, an overall of 22,000.

Turkey is hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world and has spent more than seven billion euros ($7.7 billion) meeting their needs, according to European Commission figures released last year.