September 25, 2018
Greece, Politics
EU’s anti-fraud watchdog OLAF is investigating the potential misuse of EU funds meant to provide food for refugees in Greece, a spokesperson for the agency said Tuesday. The news follows the detention on Saturday of the publisher, the editor in chief and one journalist from Greek newspaper Fileleftheros following a libel suit filed …
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August 31, 2018
Refugees
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency is urging the Government of Greece to address the situation in Aegean Sea Reception and Identification Centres (RICs), commonly known as ‘hotspots’. In a briefing a the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Friday, UNHCR spokesperson Charlie Yaxley said among others that the refugee centers …
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August 26, 2018
Refugees
A video that went viral in many countries purported to show a television crew staging migrants drowning on a beach in Crete. Greek Director Eleni Vlassi was shooting a historical documentary on a beach in Crete when, unknowingly, she found herself accused of staging a drowning of migrants by dozens of …
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August 14, 2018
Greece, Politics
Talks between Germany and Greece on a deal for refugees returns are fairly advanced, said Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, highlighting that an agreement with Italy still has some time yet. “We are in the process of negotiations,” she said during a joint press conference she gave in Berlin with …
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August 6, 2018
Refugees
Europeans are no longer shocked by pictures of drowned migrants and refugees children.Their pictures no longer make it to headlines. The urgency Europe felt following the death of 3-year-old refugee boy Kurdi washed ashore a Turkish shore in 2015 appears to have dissipated. Just look at the direction in which …
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July 18, 2018
Refugees
For one more time, the sea becomes the deep blue grave for men, women and children trying to flee the conflict in Syria and seek a better, peaceful life. At least 19 people were drowned when a boat carrying 150 refugees and migrants sank off Yalusa located in the occupied …
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July 2, 2018
Politics, World
Switzerland has rejected a second asylum seeker relocation programme proposed by the European Union to relieve the burden on frontier countries like Italy and Greece. According to the SonntagsBlick paper, a spokesperson from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has confirmed that currently Switzerland has no plans to renew its commitment to …
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June 29, 2018
Politics, World
Greece and Spain have agreed to accept returns of migrants registered via the Eurodac system and who have reached later Germany, Chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced on Friday in Brussels after meetings with prime ministers Alexis Tsipras and Pedro Sanchez. In return, Germany will gradually step up family reunifications. Migrants registered …
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June 20, 2018
Refugees
The number of refugees, asylum seekers and people with no citizenship in Greece totaled 58,000 in early June, according to figures released by the Greek chapter of the UNHCR on Wednesday, World Refugee Day. Sabine Wahning, head of the Thessaloniki office, says that there is a rising trend in the …
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June 19, 2018
Refugees
A three-and-a-half year old refugee boy found a tragic death after he fell into the cesspit of the Refugees camp in Thiva, Boeotia, Central Greece, on Monday evening. According to media, the little boy was watching together with his parents other refugees playing football in a small pitch next to …
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June 19, 2018
Politics, Refugees
In the first five months of 2018 Greece has been Europe’s top entry point for refugees and migrants. According to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontext, over 19,800 people entered Greece during January – May 2018. At the same time, the land border crossing from Turkey to Greece …
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June 13, 2018
Politics, Refugees
Fewer refugees arriving in Greece from Turkey through the Evros river, but problems remain, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in a report. The international agency urges efforts to ensure access to asylum and timely registration in Greece’s north-eastern Evros region. As dawn breaks over Greece’s north-eastern Evros region, …
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June 6, 2018
Politics, Refugees
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published preliminary observations on its ad hoc visit to Greece and migrant detention centers there from April 10 to April 19 of this year. As reported by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the CPT, “confirmed the persisting reality …
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May 30, 2018
Politics, Refugees
Hundreds of Kurdish asylum seekers left the Moria camp on the island of Lesvos after violence broke out last Friday. Solidarity groups and NGOs set up makeshift camps for the people in need of food, water and shelter, an action that drew the anger of local authorities that turned to …
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May 23, 2018
Uncategorized
At a particularly hard moment for the 3,150 unaccompanied children in Greece, with more than 2,300 of them living under precarious conditions – in detention, camps or even on the street and many of the accommodation facilities being shut down – the suggestion of alternative solutions is of crucial importance. …
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May 22, 2018
Politics, Refugees
Violent clashes among refugees broke out in the hot spot of Skaramagkas in West Attica in the early morning hours of Tuesday. Involved in the clashes were male refugees from Syria and Kurds. One Jurdish man has been injured, probably stabbed with a knife. The clashes were very violent, involved …
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May 18, 2018
Refugees
The Ecological Movement of Thessaloniki has issued an appeal for help for refugees in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. The second biggest city of Greece is experiencing a continuous inflow of refugees in the last four months that is permanently on the rise. A few tens to a few hundreds of people …
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May 11, 2018
Very Mix
They came, saw, danced and left. The village of Archanes was the last place the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited before leaving the island of Crete, concluding their 3-day official visit to Greece. Locals had already started with a slow Pentozali, the traditional Cretan dance, when …
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May 7, 2018
Refugees
A criminal court on the island of Lesvos acquitted three Spanish firefighters members of the NGO Proem-Aid, and two Danes of Arab descent, members of the NGO Team Humanity on Monday. In a session that lasted nine hours the court acquitted the NGO members and ordered return of the bail. …
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May 7, 2018
Politics, Refugees
Three Spanish firefighters and two Danes, all members of non-governmental organizations, stand trial on the island of Lesvos on Monday. Greek authorities accuse them of smuggling refugees into the island of Eastern Aegean Sea and into the European Union in January 2016. The accused say they were only trying to …
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