(AP) Ahmet Mete, who was recognized by Turkey but not by Greece as the elected mufti for the Muslim population in the Xanthi region, died Thursday at age 57, his family said. The family did not discuss the cause of death, but […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia say they have discovered 87 migrants crammed into a truck with a trailer in the southern part of the country and arrested two men for migrant smuggling. Police said the migrants, who included 45 Syrians, 39 Pakistanis, […]
(Reuters) The European Union’s top migration official told Greece on Thursday to stop “violent” deportations of migrants or risk losing funds. After becoming one of the main destination points during the migration crisis of 2015, Athens has hardened its policy in the […]
(AFP) Athens on Monday accused smugglers from Turkey of trying to send more than a thousand migrants to Greek islands, before the boats were detected in the Aegean and turned back. Greek Merchant Navy Minister Yannis Plakiotakis said Turkish smugglers had “tried […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia say they discovered 24 migrants hiding in a van on a major highway in the country’s south Sunday and arrested two men as suspected people smugglers. The two Macedonian nationals, 50 and 47 years old, were identified […]
(Kathimerini) Despite repeatedly criticizing Greece for appointing the Muslim community’s muftis in the region of Thrace, Turkey also appoints its own muftis at a central level, via a state agency, Greek diplomatic sources pointed out on Tuesday, highlighting “the hypocrisy of Turkey’s […]
(AP) A pickup truck trying to evade pursuing police in northeastern Greece slammed into a fence, killing one migrant and injuring 17 others, including the driver, Greek police said Sunday. The accident took place Saturday in the northeastern region of Thrace, police […]
(Kathimerini) Amid rising acrimony with Turkey, plans are being drafted to deal with the possibility of an attempted mass entry of migrants into Greece at the instigation of Ankara in a repeat of the spring 2020 incident at the Evros land border. […]
(AP) Five European Union nations on the Mediterranean who fear possible waves of refugees driven by hunger out of Africa called Saturday for an end to the EU’s “voluntary” solidarity on migrants and a better way to redistribute the burden of caring […]
(AP) Two people, one believed to be a migrant and the other the alleged trafficker, died Saturday in northern Greece while trying to evade a police checkpoint, police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki said. Twelve more people riding in the […]
(Reuters) Mediterranean countries on major migrant routes into Europe expect over 150,000 arrivals this year as food shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict threaten a new migration wave from Africa and the Middle East. “This year the frontline member states are expected, […]
(AP) Greek authorities say they are planning a major extension of a wall along the country’s border with Turkey and are seeking European Union financial support for the additional construction. Notis Mitarachi, the migration affairs minister, said the steel wall would be […]
(AFP) Greece said Saturday some 40,000 illegal migrants had been blocked from entering the country along the northern border with Turkey since the beginning of the year. Greece is often the country of choice for migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East […]
(Reuters) Greece warned on Tuesday that it would not allow the illegal entry of migrants by land or by sea, after a sharp increase in attempted entries through its Aegean islands and land border with Turkey over the past few days. The […]
(AFP) Greece said on Monday it had prevented around 600 migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea into its territorial waters from neighbouring Turkey, in the largest attempted entry this year. A spokesman for the Greek coastguard said five sail boats and four […]
(AFP) For years Greece has been accused of illegally pushing asylum-seekers back to Turkey, a practice it strenuously denies. But according to witnesses and rights groups, the summary deportations are also hitting vulnerable opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kurdish writer […]
(AFP) Fabrice Leggeri, a figurehead for impenetrable European frontiers who was frequently accused of tolerating illegal “pushbacks” of migrants, has resigned as head of Frontex, the border agency said Friday. The Frontex board made the announcement after holding a two-day meeting “in […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia say a patrol discovered 18 migrants in the south of the country and arrested the driver after a brief chase. A police statement released Monday said the 18 migrants, 14 Syrians and 4 Pakistanis, were discovered late […]
(AP) Greek authorities say they are searching for the captain of a small Polish-flagged sailboat found moored in a bay on the island of Salamina, near the country’s largest port of Piraeus, carrying five Syrian nationals who had been smuggled into the […]
(AP) A migrant was killed by gunfire at the Greece-Turkey border while she and several others attempted to cross a river separating the two countries, Greek police said Sunday. It wasn’t immediately clear who fired the shot that killed the woman on […]
(Kathimerini) Police on Rhodes announced on Monday that they arrested four foreigners suspected of involvement in a criminal organization that trafficked migrants to the island. Those arrested come from Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. The group allegedly collected migrants from beaches and transported […]
(AP) Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused authorities in Greece of allegedly using migrants to help carry out summary, illegal deportations of asylum seekers at the country’s border before they are able to register their claims. The New York-based rights group based […]
(AP) Two people were arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling and endangering lives for steering a sailboat carrying 68 others that ran into trouble off Greece’s western coast last week, the coast guard said Tuesday. The coast guard said the two — […]
(Kathimerini) Greece told Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday that there is no provision in the Treaty of Lausanne, a 1923 peace accord which, among other things, forged modern Greece and Turkey’s borders, stating that the muftis of the Muslim minority […]
(AP) Greece’s independent authority for transparency said Tuesday that after an in-depth investigation it has found no basis for reports that Greek authorities have illegally turned back asylum-seekers entering the country from Turkey. The National Transparency Authority said in a statement that […]
(Kathimerini) In an operation carried out with help from the European police agency Europol, law enforcement authorities in northern Greece have dismantled what they believe to be a large migrant smuggling ring. According to an announcement released by the Hellenic Police (ELAS) […]
(Kathimerini) Ankara has taken its allegations of human rights violations by Greece to the United Nations, accusing it of pushbacks and refugee and migrant deaths in the Aegean. The Turkish allegations are included in the letter sent by the permanent representative of […]
(AP) The U.N. refugee agency on Monday voiced alarm at increasing reports of “horrific incidents” where asylum-seekers and migrants trying to slip into Greece and other European countries are allegedly being forced back. Athens denied the claims, and said the UNHCR appeared […]
(AP) Four people have been arrested on the Greek island of Lesbos after violence broke out during a protest against plans to build a new migrant camp, authorities said Tuesday. Following a peaceful march to the site in heavy rain Monday, a […]
(AP) Hundreds of people marched through central Athens on Sunday to protest what they say are Greece’s pushbacks of migrants and refugees at the border with Turkey. The marchers carried an inflatable dinghy, like those migrants use to cross the sea from […]
(Kathimerini) Coast guard[s] on Kos have arrested four people — two Greeks and two non-nationals — on suspicion of smuggling migrants from the Turkish coast to the island for €4,000 a person. The arrests followed the discovery of a speedboat on January […]
(Kathimerini) The municipal council of Orestiada in northeastern Greece is convening Tuesday to discuss controversial plans by the government to expand a migrant reception and identification center on the outskirts of the border village of Fylakio. The plan for the center is […]
(AP) Police in Italy, Albania and Greece on Wednesday arrested some 30 people accused of profiteering several hundred million euros to smuggle refugees and migrants into the European Union from Turkey on yachts and other leisure vessels. The coordinated action is believed […]
(AFP) French right-wing presidential hopeful Valerie Pecresse on Saturday slammed the EU’s “sieve-like” borders for allowing migrants to enter undetected and backed calls for barbed-wire fences to prevent them crossing illegally into the bloc. Pecresse, whom polls show as President Emmanuel Macron’s […]
(AP) French presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse stressed the need for strong European borders Friday, during a visit to Greece that will also see her visit a camp for asylum seekers on an Aegean island used by migrants to enter Europe from neighboring […]
(Kathimerini) A growing number of residents on the eastern Aegean island of Chios are opposing the planned creation of a closed camp for migrants. Reactions culminated during Thursday’s public holiday, when several hundred residents gathered at the port to prevent machinery that […]
(Kathimerini) Residents and local officials on the island of Chios have blocked a ship carrying construction machinery for the new planned migrant “closed controlled access center” from docking on Thursday. Residents of the island had also blocked the ship from docking at […]
(Euronews) Migration once again became a key issue for Europe this past year as tensions flared up at the EU’s border with Belarus. Hundreds of migrants gathered at the bloc’s border as the EU accused Belarus of waging a hybrid war and […]
(Kathimerini) An estimated 11,900 refugees and migrants crammed onto 120 yachts or sailboats are believed to have made it from Turkey to Italy via Greece this year, as the method has been gaining popularity among migrant smuggling rackets on the other side […]
(Kathimerini) A 40-year-old Iraqi man was remanded in prison on Monday after he testified before a prosecutor about his alleged involvement in the ISIS terrorist organization. The man was arrested by counterterror officers in central Athens last week on suspicion of involvement […]
(AP) Three people have been charged with murder in Greece following the death of 16 migrants who were killed when a boat transporting them from Turkey to Italy capsized, authorities said Monday. The suspects were among 63 people rescued following the tragedy […]
(AFP) Greek coast guards scoured for survivors in the Aegean Sea on Saturday after the latest in a series of migrant boat accidents that have killed at least 30 people in just days. Late Friday, the coastguard found 16 bodies, including those […]
(Kathimerini) Greek intelligence and counterterror authorities had been keeping a close eye on a 39-year-old Iraqi suspected of large-scale migrant smuggling before the official launch of the operation against him earlier this month, Kathimerini has learned. According to court records, Thakir M. […]
(AFP) Greek counter-terrorism authorities have arrested a 40-year-old Iraqi man on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State group (IS), police said Thursday. The man arrived in Greece from Syria, a police official told AFP, adding that he will appear before a […]
(Kathimerini) The government will expand the border fence with Turkey in the country’s northeast by 26km, Civil Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos told MPs on Friday. Addressing the Parliamentary Committee on National Defense and Foreign Affair[s], he said in addition to repairing the […]
(Kathimerini) A 39-year-old Iraqi who was arrested in central Athens on Tuesday on migrant trafficking charges is on a list of Islamic terrorism suspects, state officials have confirmed to Kathimerini. Mohammed T. was arrested with an Egyptian, nicknamed “Abu George,” in an […]
(AFP) Pope Francis on Saturday blamed the EU’s nationalist divisions for a lack of coordination on migration as he began a landmark trip to Greece, aiming to improve complicated relations with the country’s Orthodox Church. Francis said that Europe was “torn by […]
(AFP) The European Union should be prepared for more migrant crises like the ones on the Greece-Turkey and Poland-Belarus borders, the head of the EU’s border agency told AFP in an interview. Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri also said the agency was working […]
(AP) Greece accused Turkey on Tuesday of acting like a “pirate” in waters between the two regional rivals, claiming that its coast guard escorted and tried to push into Greek waters a boat of migrants who were trying to illegally reach Greece. […]
(AP) Police in North Macedonia say they have discovered 42 migrants in a truck in the southeastern part of the country near the border with Greece. A police patrol car followed the truck Saturday near the town of Star Dojran, 160 kilometers […]
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