Slowly but gradually the number of refugees and migrants arriving from the Turkish coast started to rise again and the flow is on daily basis. In the last 24 hours alone, a total of 462 refugees and migrants arrived on the Greek islands of the eastern Aegean Sea in the last 24 hours, that is from morning of August 29th until morning of August 30th 2016.
According to Migration Ministry data, 176 people arrived on the island of Lesvos, 88 on Chios, 124 on Kos and 70 on Rhodes.
At the same time, Turkey insists on trading visa-free for its citizens in order to keep implementing the EU Turkey Deal.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated that
“Turkey can not continue to halt the irregular migration to the EU as long as it [the EU] does not assumes its responsibilities. We expect the visa liberalization for Turkish citizens at the latest in October 2016 “.
Greece is very concerned about the insistence of Turkey that threatens to cancel the EU Turkey Deal,but the European Union does not seem to share the Greek worries with the same intensity.
Brussels and many EU member-states have decided anyway and long ago that
no matter how many refugees and migrants arrive they will be stuck in Greece.
One of the 88 refugees & migrants who arrived on Chios on Wednesday morning was a Turkish judge who asked asylum claiming that he was under persecution by the Erdogan regime.
PS I read recently somewhere on Greek internet that refugees and migrants have been diverting from Turkey to Bulgaria thus bypassing Greece. If this is true, then EU should work out a new Refugees & Migrants Deal with Bulgaria….
A terrorist state like Turkey-ISIL needs to get kicked out of Europe, their alcoholic genocider’s Ottoman-swastika-flag must be banned, their embassies closed and all assets seized to finance the help for their victims and Tsipras should visit Kurdistan very fast and invite PYG to open up an embassy in Athens instead – freedom for Apo Öcalan is the only solution and chance for peace as if not Turkey will not exist any-more very fast, but I guess people who believe in god(s) and genociders are not capable to understand this.
Perhaps abit strong but Turkey is now a fascistic state on the way to an antihuman totalitarian threat to European and American culture and social freedoms. This visa-free travel to Europe from Turkey (not by Turks) is a dangerous thing.
What are you talking about? The visa-free travel is ONLY for Turks. The refugees and others are still denied the right to come to Europe, and are expecred to stay in a fascistic country (as you put it) which is clearly not safe for them and gives them no rights. The problem here is Europe as much as it is Erdogan — especially the fascistic states in Eastern Europe and the racist-xenophobes of the UK.
The “American culture” is in prison for fighting terrorism since 1492, just like Kurdish culture is and this is the reason why the illegal states of America collaborate with Turkey and have the pervert cheek to put their independence day on the same level like the Greek.