(AP) Greece’s migration minister says the number of migrants arriving in Greece has dropped dramatically over the past two years, while the number of asylum-seekers living in the country has also fallen. Speaking Tuesday at an event marking the third anniversary of […]
(AP) An appeals court in Greece has ordered the release of a Somali migrant who had been sentenced to life in prison for people smuggling, in a case that has drawn international attention to draconian border protection laws in the European Union […]
(Kathimerini) Interior Minister Makis Voridis has intervened to ascertain the legality of the decision by a mayor in Rodopi, northeastern Greece, to fire workers accused of being supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled cleric and preacher that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
(AP) Accompanied by a cloud of mosquitos, Police Capt. Konstantinos Tsolakidis and three other border guards set out on a boat patrol along the Evros River that forms a natural frontier between Greece and Turkey. The route takes them through a maze […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia said Wednesday they had arrested nine people, including a police officer, on suspicion of smuggling dozens of migrants through the country. The nine, who are all Macedonian nationals and include two minors, were arrested during raids on […]
(AP) Four Turkish nationals have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling migrants after a boat with nearly 100 people on board was found in trouble off an island near Athens, Greek authorities said Friday. The coast guard said that the four had […]
(Anadolu) Greece does not recognize the Turkish community living in Western Thrace as an ethnic minority, thus violating a major international treaty, Türkiye’s top diplomat said on Thursday. “Greece persistently continues to violate the Lausanne Treaty and basic human rights of Turkish […]
(Kathimerini) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Greece of undermining the rights of the Muslim minority in the country’s northeastern Thrace region. “The unfair and unlawful practices against the Muslim Turkish minority in Greece continue increasingly,” Erdogan told a gathering […]
(AP) Four Mediterranean European Union nations have issued a joint statement on a dispute over a deal for Europe to jointly help asylum-seekers. In their statement Saturday, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus repeated their positions that they “cannot subscribe to the notion […]
(Kathimerini) Police say they have unraveled a migrant trafficking [ring] that operated from within the prisons of Hania on the island of Crete and Korydallos in Attica. The network, one of the largest trafficking circuits in the country, transferred migrants from the […]
(AP) Turkey and Greece on Monday exchanged more mutual recrimination over 92 migrants who were found stripped naked by Greek authorities at the two countries’ joint border, a day after the United Nations called for an investigation into the incident. Greek migration […]
(AP) Turkish officials on Sunday shot back at Greek allegations that Turkey forced 92 naked migrants into Greece, calling it “fake news” and accusing Greece of the mistreatment. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi was “sharing false information” after the official tweeted a […]
(AP) Greek authorities on Saturday accused Turkey of forcing 92 migrants to cross into Greece and stripping them naked before doing so. Greek police said that police officers found the migrants stark naked on Friday, “some with bodily injuries” who had entered […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia said Thursday that 26 migrants, who had been crammed into two cars driven by suspected smugglers, have been detained near the southern border with Greece. A police statement said the cars were near the town of Valandovo […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia have detained 44 Syrian migrants, including 14 minors, found carefully hidden in a truck near the southern border with Greece, authorities said Tuesday. The truck driver was arrested on suspicion of belonging to a migrant-smuggling ring. A […]
(AP) Several Mediterranean nations said Saturday the European Union’s border agency Frontex needs to work inside third countries to stop smugglers from endangering the lives of migrants by sending them off to Europe on risky boat trips. Top officials from Spain, Greece, […]
(Kathimerini) Greece on Wednesday published a video that appears to show officers of the Turkish Coast Guard hitting migrants and pushing their rubber boat away from the former’s vessel. Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis, who posted the video on his Twitter account, said […]
(AFP) Greece’s coast guard on Sunday said a group of migrants in distress in the Ionian Sea had refused to be rescued, amid widespread reports of illegal pushbacks. The coast guard said the group of at least 56 asylum seekers were on […]
(AP) Greece on Monday urged the European Union to lift movement restrictions for refugees recognized by individual nations, accusing the bloc of applying a double standard when dealing with Ukrainians fleeing the war compared with the victims of other conflicts. Notis Mitarachi, […]
(Kathimerini) Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis sent a letter of response to Channel 4 and Der Spiegel regarding the reports they published about the 38 migrants stranded on an islet in the Evros River on Greece’s border with Turkey. Greece, he noted, has […]
(Kathimerini) Guards at Greece’s northeastern land border with Turkey prevented some 1,500 migrants from entering the country on Wednesday, the country’s minister for citizens’ protection said, describing the push for entry as an “organized plan.” “There obviously exists some kind of organized […]
(Kathimerini) Athens accused Ankara of trying to intervene in its domestic affairs after Turkey’s Foreign Ministry called on Greece to investigate threats received by a Muslim member of Greek Parliament and expressing support for the country’s “Turkish minority.” Huseyin Zeybek, a lawmaker […]
(Anadolu) Türkiye on Friday called on authorities in Greece to investigate a death threat against a Greek lawmaker who is also a member of the country’s Muslim Turkish minority. “We expect the Greek authorities to investigate this serious incident and punish the […]
(AP) A group of 142 migrants was detained near North Macedonia’s southern border with Greece early Thursday, authorities said. A police statement said the detainees were mostly from Syria and Pakistan, and had entered from Greece. They were taken to a shelter […]
(Anadolu) The newly elected Muslim cleric (mufti) of the Turkish minority in the Xanthi region of Western Thrace in Greece said Monday that discriminatory practices are being carried out against the Turkish minority in the region. Mustafa Trampa, who was elected as […]
(Kathimerini) Greece’s Foreign Ministry has released a statement countering Turkish claims that it imposes appointed religious leaders, or muftis, on the Muslim minority in the northeastern province of Thrace instead of letting them elect their own. “The Turkish side is attempting, once […]
(AFP) A group of Syrian refugees in Turkey is planning to form a caravan to reach the European Union, organisers said Saturday. Plans are being drawn up online via a Telegram channel, set up six days ago and followed by almost 70,000 […]
(Anadolu) In defiance of state intervention, Greece’s 150,000-strong Muslim Turkish minority is set to elect their new religious leader. The elections — in which two candidates, Mustafa Trampa and Mustafa Kamo, are running — will be held following Friday prayer in Xanthi […]
(Anadolu) Türkiye on Monday again urged Greece to respect the rights of the Turkish minority in its Western Thrace region and to stop denying recognition to elected Muslim clerics (muftis). Talking to Twitter, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that Türkiye expects Greece […]
(AFP) Greece has blocked over 150,000 undocumented migrants on its land and maritime border so far this year, the migration minister said Sunday. “The entry of 154,102 irregular migrants was averted since the start of the year. Around 50,000 attempted to invade […]
(AP) Greek authorities have prevented some 25,000 people from entering the country illegally in less than a month, a government official said Wednesday, accusing neighbor and regional rival Turkey of channeling asylum-seekers toward Greece. That figure is more than three times the […]
(AP) Greece will gradually extend a fence along its land border with Turkey and increase surveillance measures following an increase in illegal immigration from its eastern neighbor, the Greek government said Tuesday. The decision was taken during a meeting, chaired by Prime […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia have detained 26 migrants thought to have entered illegally from neighboring Greece, and arrested a suspected smuggler who had been driving them in a van toward the northern border with Serbia. A police statement said the migrants […]
(Kathimerini) Citizens’ Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos on Friday dismissed recent statements by a Turkish minister that Greece is a “training center for terrorists” as provocative and outright lies. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Greece was training members of the Kurdistan Workers’ […]
(AP) Greek authorities on Friday raised to 71 the number of migrants aboard a sailboat that reached the southern island of Kythera a day earlier, the third crammed vessel to do so in two days. The boat, a sailing catamaran, was located […]
(AFP) Police and migrants faced off Thursday as Greek authorities started evacuating one of the last refugee camps in Athens, officials said, with videos showing authorities using tear gas and a flash grenade. The attempted eviction of the Eleonas camp, which hosts […]
(AP) Greek authorities say another sailboat carrying dozens of migrants arrived Thursday at Kythera, the third in just under two days to make it to the southern island that isn’t on the usual route for asylum-seekers trying to reach the European Union. […]
(AP) Two sailboats carrying dozens of migrants arrived on a southern Greek island early Wednesday, with the first one running aground on rocks. Nobody was reported injured or missing. The coast guard said the first sailboat, which ran aground on the southern […]
(Kathimerini) A day after police said they found 38 migrants who had been reported stranded on an islet in the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border, Greece on Tuesday accused Turkey of pushing the migrants into Greek territory. During a visit to […]
(AP) Greek police say they have found 38 migrants who had been reported stranded on an islet in the Evros River on the border between Greece and Turkey. Police announced they found 22 men, 9 women and 7 children Monday at a […]
(AP) A truck carrying Syrian migrants believed to have entered from neighboring Greece overturned on a road in North Macedonia, injuring 35 people, police said Thursday. A police statement said 49 people were in the heavy vehicle during the crash late Wednesday […]
(Kathimerini) Greece rejected claims by Turkey that a new legal framework on the election of Muslim clerics (muftis) in Thrace, northeastern Greece, denies the community the right to elect their own muftis, saying it is “fully compatible with the constitution of Greece […]
(Anadolu) Türkiye on Thursday criticized Greece’s latest move denying recognition to the Turkish minority’s elected Muslim clerics (muftis), calling it “unacceptable.” In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry urged Greece to respect international law and fulfill its contractual obligations under the longstanding […]
(AP) Five people were arrested on a Greek island Tuesday and charged with trying to smuggle nearly a hundred migrants into Europe on an unsafe vessel last week, using what appears to be a new direct sea route from crisis-afflicted Lebanon to […]
(AP) Germany’s top diplomat visited refugees at a camp in Greece on Thursday after stressing that European Union countries should do more to safeguard people seeking refuge from war and hardship. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited a Holocaust memorial in Athens […]
(Anadolu) The European Union’s border agency, Frontex, has deliberately and systematically cooperated with Greece in illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers to Turkish waters, a German magazine reported Thursday. Findings of an investigation by OLAF, the bloc’s anti-fraud agency, on the dimension of […]
(Reuters) Turkey on Monday accused Greece of pushing a boat carrying migrants out of Greek territorial waters and back into Turkish ones. The defence ministry in Ankara said the incident occurred on Sunday near Rhodes, and posted drone footage on social media […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia have found 86 migrants, including minors, crammed into a truck with an attached trailer in the southern part of the country and arrested the truck driver. The migrants from Pakistan, Syria and India were discovered late Saturday […]
(AP) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday criticized Greece for allegedly violating a settlement that has governed relations between the rivals for nearly a century. In a statement released on the 99th anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty, Erdogan accused Athens of […]
(Kathimerini) Greece’s Foreign Ministry has issued a terse response to allegations from Turkey regarding the closure of four minority primary schools in the northeastern province of Thrace, which Ankara claims constitutes a violation of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne provisions safeguarding the […]
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