NATO: Efforts to stem migrant flows making a difference

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shake hands after a joint news conference in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, April 21, 2016. Stoltenberg says efforts to stem the tide of migrants seeking the shores of Europe are working.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) (The Associated Press)

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks to the media during a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, April 21, 2016. Stoltenberg says efforts to stem the tide of migrants seeking the shores of Europe are working.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) (The Associated Press)

Mowlid Isman, 28, from Somalia, left, speaks as Muaz Mahmud, 25, from Ethiopia looks on during a press conference organized by non-governmental organizations in Athens, Thursday, April 21, 2016. The two men say they are survivors from a shipwreck last week in the Mediterranean Sea that international groups say left as many as 500 people feared dead. (AP Photo/Theodora Tongas) (The Associated Press)

ANKARA, Turkey – NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says efforts to stem the tide of migrants seeking the shores of Europe are working.

Speaking in Ankara, he said the collective effort is "making a difference" and that the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea is "significantly down."

Under an EU-Turkey deal signed last month, migrants arriving on Greek islands from the Turkish coast from March 20 onwards face deportation to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece.

The International Organization for Migration says Greece has seen fewer than 70 arrivals per day in the past 10 days, down from nearly 1,500 of arrivals per day before the deal was struck.

NATO began patrolling the Aegean Sea in February to help stop the smuggling of migrants.