Greece has rushed to reinforce its land border with Turkey as fears mount over a sharp rise in the number of refugees and migrants crossing the frontier. Police patrols were augmented as local authorities said the increase in arrivals had become reminiscent of the influx of migrants on the Aegean …
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Lesvos: 17 locals to be charged for attacks against refugees, migrants and police
Police authorities on the island of Lesvos have prepared case files against 17 locals for the attacks against refugees, migrants and police officers last Sunday. According to local media, 5 of the suspects will be charged with felony charges, while the remaining 12 will face charges for misdemeanors offenses. The …
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League for Human Rights expresses “dismay” over the racists attacks on Lesvos”
The Hellenic League for Human Rights condemns the racist violent attacks against refugees and migrants on the island of Lesvos on Sunday. Expressing its particular concern, the HLHR said in a statement issued on Monday, the attacks ’cause dismay’, the ‘no arrests of perpetrators pose serious questions and requite further …
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Lesvos: Police arrests protesting refugees, but not a single far-right attacker
All 120 adult refugees and migrants who had occupied the Sappho Square on the island of Lesvos and were exposed to the attacks by far-right extremists have been arrested, while the attackers are wandering free. According to local media, the majority of the detained are Afghan nationals and face charges …
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Lesvos: Far-right mob attacks protesting refugees (videos, pcts)
Night of shame on the island of Lesvos. Chanting “Burn them alive” and hurling flares, firecrackers, stones and bottles at protesting men, women and children refugees, far-rights were trying to break through the strong police forces. The men among the refugees had made a human chain to protect the women …
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Refugees sleep in squares & parks as hundreds flock to Thessaloniki
Hundreds of refugees and migrants have been flocking to Thessaloniki in Northern Greece, lately, seeking an opportunity for a temporary residence in an EU country. Majority of them have reportedly illegally entered Greece from Turkey through the Evros river. They sleep in parks and squares awaiting for a place in …
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“Newly arriving asylum seekers can move freely across Greece,” Council of State rules
Newly arriving refugees and migrants can move freely across the country without being restricted to the hot spots on the Greek islands, the country’s highest administrative court, the Council of State ruled on Tuesday. The ruling is considered as “landmark” as it ends the geographical restrictions for new arrivals according …
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Baby from Afrin dies of rare form of acute leukemia in Crete
An 8-month-old refugee baby died of a rare form of acute leukemia in Heraklion, Crete, last Saturday. The parents brought the baby with chickenpox symptoms to the university hospital of the city. Doctors diagnosed chickenpox but also acute and aggressive form of myelogenous leukemia. The aggressive course of the illness …
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Turkey’s Coast Guard obstructs Greece’s refugee rescue off Chios (video)
Turkish Coast Guard attempted to hinder a refugees rescue operation off the island of Chios in the eastern Aegean Sea on Wednesday noon. Moreover, the TCG vessel tried to rammed a Greek coast guard boat involved in the rescue operation, initial reports by local media said. Earlier, the TCG had …
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€180 million EU emergency support for refugees in Greece
The European Commission has announced on Tuesday new funding of €180 million for aid projects in Greece, including to scale up the flagship ‘Emergency Support to Integration & Accommodation’ (ESTIA) programme which helps get refugees into urban accommodation and out of camps and provides them with regular cash assistance. The funding …
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EU Ombudsman probes work of EASO in Greece’s hotspots
The European Ombudsman European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights will examine practices by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) at “hotspots” (reception centers) in Greece. The move comes in response to a complaint about the inadmissibility decisions taken under the EU-Turkey agreement. The complaint was filed by ECCHR with …
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Berlin, Brussels blame Greece for undermining the EU-Turkey deal
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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Shocking testimonies: “I was breastfeeding my baby and it was gone…”
Four boys, two girls and one baby girl; seven men and two women… the bodies of 16 people have been recovered from the sea or from the shore where they were washed out in the south of the island of Agathonisi where a wooden migrant boat capsized in the early …
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11 asylum seekers, 8 policemen injured during clashes in Moria refugee camp
At least 11 asylum seekers and 8 police officers were injured during clashes in the hot spot of Moria on the island of Lesvos on Wednesday evening. 200 women and children were evacuated in a nearby warehouse. Some 150 refugees and migrants in the Moria refugee camp staged a protest …
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Germany complains, Greece refuses to take back refugees
Greece has refused to take back refugees from Germany, in violation of Dublin regulations, according to a report in Germany’s Passauer Neue Presse. In a response to a parliamentary query submitted by the German Left party, the interior ministry reportedly said Germany had made 2,312 resettlement requests. Although Athens said …
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Five Aegean islands seek to cancel “geographic restrictions for refugees and migrants”
The geographical restriction imposed on refugees and migrants who arrived in Greece after the EU-Turkey Statement on the islands of the northern Aegean, violates the principle of human dignity, the alleged need to apply it is not substantiated, representatives of the Bar Associations in Chios, Lesvos, Rhodes, Kos and Samos, …
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Migrants reach in Bosnia via alternative Balkan route
Migrants in the pursuit to reach western Europe are now opting for an alternate route through Bosnia and Herzegovina as anti-trafficking forces clamp down on them. Earlier, the Balkan route — through Greece, FYROM, Serbia and Hungary or Croatia — was closed for refugees in March 2016. Now, the migrants …
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EU Commission to grant €7million in emergency aid for refugees in Greece
The European Commission announced to grant an additional €7 million in emergency assistance to Greece to provide an immediate response to urgent needs for shelter, catering, hygiene and cleaning services for refugees and migrants. According to an EC statement, the European Commission has today awarded an additional €7 million in …
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EU Migration Commissioner attacks Tusk’s quotas plans as “anti-European” and “unacceptable”
The European Commission has described as “unacceptable” plans by Donald Tusk, the European Council president, to scrap mandatory quotas on relocating asylum seekers across the EU. Speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, said a note put forward by Tusk ahead of an EU summit is anti-European. …
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Tusk to propose scrapping refugee quotas scheme, EU may accept
European Council president Donald Tusk is to tell the EU summit on Thursday that the mandatory quotas for refugees relocation have been ‘divisive and ineffective’ and they should be abolished. The plan comes just days after the EU took three member states, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to court …
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