March 7, 2020
Greece, Politics
“Right now, let’s be honest, the agreement is dead,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with CNN released late on Friday. “And it’s dead because Turkey has decided to completely violate the agreement because of what happened in Syria,” he added. “Europe is not going to be blackmailed …
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March 5, 2020
World
The Council of the Interior Ministers of the European Union has expressed solidarity with Greece and called on Turkey to fully implement the provisions of the 2016 EU-Turkey deal on Migration. It also strongly rejects Turkey’s use of migratory pressure for political purposes. The Council conveyed on Wednesday following a …
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October 8, 2018
Refugees
Dozens of migrants from Iraq and Iran have been camping on the main square of Thessaloniki and outside the police station awaiting to be arrested. Once arrested, the police can give them the necessary documents so that they can apply for asylum, many of them told local media. Families with …
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June 7, 2018
Greece, Politics
Turkey has suspended the migrant readmission deal with Greece in response to a Greek court’s decision to release eight former Turkish servicemen who fled to the country one day after Turkey’s July 2016 coup attempt, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. During a meeting with Turkish reporters, Cavusoglu was asked whether …
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March 19, 2018
Refugees
Unnamed officials in Berlin, Brussels and the EU’s border agency Frontex,blame Greece for undermining the EU-Turkey refugee and migrants deal as it moved people form the overcrowded camps on the islands to the mainland. Data published by the German newspaper Die Welt suggest that Greece has been undermining the European …
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August 23, 2017
Refugees
Does President Recep Tayyip Erdogan let the EU-Turkey deal on migration go burst? A significant increase in the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey has been recorded in the last six days. A total of 1,196 people arrived in the Greek islands of northern and eastern …
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June 6, 2017
Refugees
Greek Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas said that 20 to 25 thousands refugees will remain in Greece if the EU Turkey deal stands. At the same time, he expressed concern about the increasing influx of refugees and migrants on the Greek islands. Speaking to Skai TV on Tuesday, Mouzalas said if …
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April 25, 2017
Refugees
European Union auditors say that migrants centers – the famous Hot Spots – set up in Greece and Italy to fast-track the registration of migrants are overwhelmed and urgently require more experts, particularly to help children. In a report released Tuesday, the auditors say that two more centers known as …
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April 13, 2017
Politics, Refugees
Over 16,000 migrants have been redistributed from Greece and Italy among other EU countries in the past two years, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said. “We have already relocated more than 16,000 so far in total, of which more than 2,400 in the last reporting period. With this, Member States, even though not all of them …
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April 4, 2017
Refugees
The European Union is determined to stick to a deal with Turkey to stem the flow of undocumented migrants into the bloc, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Tuesday. Tusk, who met Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev, welcomed Sofia’s efforts to boost security on its southeastern border with Turkey to …
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March 15, 2017
Politics, Refugees
As relations between Turkey and Europe deteriorated, the government in Ankara did what it knows best: it fired threats. Exactly there where it knows it hurts Europe: The Refugees. At least two ministers told media that the government is considering to review the EU Turkey Deal. The statements were immediately …
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March 15, 2017
Politics, Refugees
The EU Turkey deal has trapped thousands of people in abysmal conditions on the Greek islands for the past year, while denying most access to asylum procedures and refugees protection, Human Rights Watch said today. This assessment of conditions is released ahead of the first anniversary of the agreement, signed on March …
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March 14, 2017
Politics, Refugees
Greece’s main opposition party New Democracy warns that 200,000 refugees and migrants will flock to Greece if the EU Turkey deal on the refugee crisis breaks apart. ND vice president Adonis Georgiadis said on Tuesday that if the confrontation between Turkey and Europe continues, Ankara will break the agreement one …
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March 13, 2017
Refugees
As more and more European countries ban Turkish rallies, several Greeks I spoke to in the last days are concerned that Ankara may start to push refugees and migrants towards Greece and consequently Europe as retaliation over the row. “I’m afraid, we will pay the price again,” a friend told …
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February 11, 2017
Very Mix
The relocation scheme of the European Union has blatantly failed. From the target of 6,000 relocations per month, less than 13,000 people have been relocated form Greece to other EU-member countries within the whole year 2016. According to data released by the Relocation Unit of the Asylum Service, the total …
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February 4, 2017
Politics, Refugees, Turkey-GR, Very Mix
Ankara alleges that Greece has forcefully sent more than 3,000 refugees migrants back to Turkey in the past months violating the Turkish-Greek readmission agreement and the EU Turkey Deal. According to Turkish officials, the migrants were sent back to Turkey through the Evros river (Maritsa in Bulgarian, Meric in Turkish), …
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January 31, 2017
Politics, Refugees, Very Mix
Three migrants died within a week at the Moria camp on the island of Lesvos, while a fourth was found dead at a camp on the island of Samos. The deaths have increased concerns about the living conditions of thousands of people who continue to live in tents, and cast …
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January 27, 2017
Politics, Refugees, Turkey-GR
Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatens to cancel the refugees readmission deal with Greece although readmission of refugees and migrants in not a bilateral agreement but an EU Turkey deal. Ankara is furious about the Supreme Court decision to not extradite the eight Turkish officers to Turkey. Cavusoglu said on …
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November 20, 2016
Politics, Refugees
“If the EU Turkey deal collapses, the alternative is the Australasian solution: All refugees on a Greek island.” Gerald Knaus, an Austrian sociologist, is the architect of the Refugee agreement between the EU and Turkey and found of the think tank “European Stability Initiative (ESI)” with headquarters in Berlin. In …
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November 3, 2016
Politics, Refugees
Turkey has threatened to end the EU migration deal unless visa-free travel is granted to Turkish citizens this year. But Brussels said Turks will need to get visas until Ankara addresses EU concerns on the rule of law. Turkey will cancel a migration deal with the European Union if the …
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