Tag Archives: migration

Migration influx has subsided both on land and sea, Greece’s government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Saturday. He attributed the decrease with better border guarding and accelaration of asylum procedures. During his visit to the city of Alexandroupolis in north-eastern Greece, Petsas emphasized the strengthening of the police force and …

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All activities stand still  on the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos and Leros as the public and private sector are holding a general strike to protest the government policy on migration and the continuous flows of refugees and migrants. Local residents and authorities and business owners have joint the strike. …

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The government’s priority is to reduce migration flows to the Eastern Aegean islands, new Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarakis said on Sunday while visiting islands in the eastern Aegean Sea. The new Migration Minister visited Samos and Lesvos in order to ease locals’ reactions to the planned closed accommodation …

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Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis needed full six months to realize that it was a grave mistake to abolish the Migration Ministry created by the SYRIZa government and assign such a crucial issue for Greece to the Ministry of Public Order as well as to deputy ministers in other institutions, like …

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Europe will either show solidarity on the migration issue or ceases to be Europe, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said on Sunday, at the New Democracy (ND) party’s 13th congress in Athens. Speaking of the migration issue, the Greek Commissioner said that the country was holding its own in …

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The Union of Greek Shipowners has said it will donate high-speed boats to the Greek Coast Guard in order to enhance patrols in the country’s maritime borders and effectively control the inflows from Turkey. Donated will be 10 Rafnar 1100 Cabin Bulletproof boats. The boats will be built in Greece …

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Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said that European Union member-states failed  to respond to the Greek request to take in 3,000 unaccompanied minors currently living in refugee camps and other facilities around the country. Speaking in the Parliament on Friday, Mitsotakis said on the distribution of 3,000 unaccompanied children in the …

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Greece will close hotspots on the Aegean islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros and will open instead closed pre-departure centers, government spokesman Stelios Petsas announce don Wednesday. the new centers will be ready by July 2020. Presenting the new government plan for the Migration issue, Petsas announced among …

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“Europe is treating first arrival countries like Greece as convenient ‘storage’ for refugees and migrants. Is this European solidarity?” Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with German daily Handelsblatt on Tuesday. At the same time, he announced the hiring of additional personnel to better manage refugees and …

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The European union should step up action on asylum, relocation and return of migrants to better meet the objectives of its support, said the Migration report on Greece and Italy published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published on Wednesday. The Migration report states among others that emergency relocation …

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Greek Minister for Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, described with the grimiest colors the situation of the migration problem is Greece. The problem on the islands is “explosive and beyond any manageable capacity,” Chrysochoidis told the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament on Wednesday. “Even …

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Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday that European Council adopted a resolution that Greece must be supported in the management of migration flows, at the insistence of the Greek side. “I would like to emphasize that point 8 of the conclusions wasadded after our urgent intervention. EU support for …

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20,000 refugees will have been transferred from the islands to the mainland by the end of the year, Minister for Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, said on Thursday. Transferred will be families that will be hosted in hotels and accommodation facilities. The option to host them in military camps has been …

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Greece is desperately seeking to halt the refugees and migrants flows and intensifies its contacts with Turkey and the European Union. Migration Policy Minister, Giorgos Koumoutsakos, is meeting with the Turkish Interior Minister and high ranking officials of the Foreign Ministry in Ankara on Thursday. A delegation of the EU …

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The Greek government has drafted an ambitious plan in order to deal with the migration crisis and decongest the overcrowded hot spots on the islands of the East Aegean Sea.. The cabinet held a four-hour meeting on Mondayin the shadow of the tragic incidents in the camp of Moria. At …

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Greece’s migration minister Giorgos Koumutsakos urged the incoming European Commission to renew a funding commitment to Turkey to stop migrants reaching the European Union. Koumoutsakos told The Associated Press in an interview on Friday that Athens would also welcome an enhanced NATO presence and tougher international patrolling off Greek islands …

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“Nations must share the burden of migration and refugee flows,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said addressing the 74th United Nations General Assembly Friday. Greece has had to handle the burden alone throughout the migration movement of recent years, as the country at the EU borders and the forefront of …

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Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a 45-minute meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday morning (local time.) The Greek-Turkish relations, the Cyprus issue, migration flows and the EU-Turkey agreement and other bilateral issues were on the agenda. It was the …

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Refugees and migrants flows to the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea continues without break and 694 people arrived on the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos between early morning Monday and Tuesday afternoon. According to latest data, 26,000 refugees and migrants are currently hosted on the eastern Aegean islands. …

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas expressed his “great respect” for Greece, both for the heavy burden placed upon it during the crisis and for the actions taken by the new government on migration and to speed up the pace of reforms. The German minister made the statement in a joint …

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