MSF, Oxfam pull out of Lesbos hotspot in yet another blow to EU
International aid organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said yesterday (23 March) it had suspended activities at a refugee centre on the Greek island of Lesbos to avoid being complicit in an...
View ArticleMinister: Greece will process asylum claims in two weeks
Greece will be able to process asylum claims within two weeks, including appeals, once a migration deal between the EU and Turkey takes full effect, a senior Greek official said on Tuesday (29 March).
View ArticleFirst refugees to be returned to Turkey
Migrant returns from Greece to Turkey will begin on Monday (4 April) under the terms of an EU deal that has worried aid groups, as Athens struggles to manage the overload of desperate people on its soil.
View ArticleClashes reported at Greek island hotspot
The EU-managed hotspot on the Greek island of Chios descended into anarchy yesterday night (31 March) following severe clashes between Afghan and Syrian refugees. EURACTIV Greece reports.
View ArticleGreece and Turkey ready first refugee returns under EU deal
Greece is making final preparations to return hundreds of migrants to Turkey, the first to be sent back under a landmark EU deal that has been slammed by human rights watchdogs.
View ArticleAid agency denounces ‘politicisation’ of humanitarian assistance
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi invited representatives from 92 countries to a special summit in Geneva to address the ongoing crisis. EURACTIV Germany spoke to Oxfam’s Robert...
View ArticleGeorgieva urges Eastern Europe to contribute more to border security
Kristalina Georgieva has called upon Eastern European countries that are struggling to deal with the influx of refugees to increase their efforts to secure the EU's external borders. EURACTIV's partner...
View ArticleHungary claims it was forced to build border fence
Physical barriers are the only way Hungary can secure its borders, according to the country's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, and Budapest still maintains its opposition to refugee...
View ArticleThe EU’s collective security: Stronger together!
The people of Europe are facing a multi-faceted security challenge that they need to confront together, whatever the outcome on 23 June. "Collective security" needs to be placed at the very heart of...
View ArticleTowards compassion and a ‘compact’ on refugees
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appeals to European leaders meeting in Brussels today (28 June) to contribute for a new Global Compact on Responsibility-sharing for Refugees, as well as a Global...
View ArticleGreece plans new refugee facilities to cut overcrowding on islands
Greece plans to reduce overcrowding at migrant camps on its islands, a government official said yesterday (17 August), to ease growing tensions and improve conditions that campaigners have called...
View ArticleGreece asks EU to do more on migrant relocation
Greece has asked the European Union to speed up the relocation to other member states of migrants and refugees in the country under a plan agreed last year to ease pressure on frontline countries...
View ArticleSarkozy promises to move Calais ‘Jungle’ across the Channel
Nicolas Sarkozy, the Republican frontrunner for the 2017 French presidential election, told la Voix du Nord that he wants to create a "hotspot" in the UK for migrants hoping to cross the channel....
View ArticleAsylum-seekers flee fire at Greek hotspot as tensions flare
Thousands of people fled a migrant camp, or hotspot, on the Greek island of Lesbos after fire swept through tents and cabins during violence among residents, police said.
View ArticleOutsourcing European border security –‘at the whim of foreign dictators’?
If Europe wants to stabilise itself against the relentless pressure of South-North migration — a must rather than an option now — taking matters into its own hands is the only sustainable way forward,...
View ArticleNew EU border guard agency is no magic bullet
The European Union’s new border guard agency is meant to remedy the failings of its predecessor, Frontex. Dr Lisa Watanabe asks whether the EBCG will be endowed with what Frontex lacked.
View ArticleAlarm over effectiveness of EU-Turkey refugee deal grows in Brussels
Some seven months after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement to turn back the tide of Syrians fleeing west, very few refugees have been sent back from Greece, and Brussels is losing its...
View ArticleAmnesty alleges Italian police ‘torture’ of migrants
Italian police have used beatings and electric shocks, potentially constituting "torture", to coerce migrants into being fingerprinted as Italy cracks under pressure from the EU, Amnesty International...
View ArticleConcerns grow over the security of EU personnel at Greek hotspots
Belgium has repatriated its hotspots personnel in the Greek islands, out of security concerns. The European Commission said that the security at hotspots is the responsibility of the Greek government.
View ArticleMigrants and police clash in Bulgaria refugee camp
Around 1,500 migrants have rioted in Bulgaria's largest refugee camp yesterday (24 November), triggering clashes that left two dozen police injured and prompted the arrest of hundreds of protesters,...
View ArticleCommission calls the plight of refugees on Greek islands ‘untenable’
Shocking footage has emerged showing how migrants are living in snow-covered tents with no heating on the Greek island of Lesbos. The Commission called their situation “untenable”.
View ArticleUN alarmed at migrants dying of cold
Refugees and migrants are dying in Europe's cold snap and governments must do more to help, rather than pushing them back from borders and subjecting them to violence, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said...
View ArticleEuropol seeks more African cooperation in fight against people smugglers
No other illegal business is more lucrative: half a million people traffickers appear in Europol's database and the number is only rising. Police are now counting on Africa to help. EURACTIV Germany...
View ArticleRefugee hotspots in Italy and Greece ‘not yet adequate’, say EU auditors
The EU’s emergency response to the 2015 refugee crisis, by creating arrival ‘hotspots’ in Greece and Italy, has left reception centres that are “not yet adequate”, according to a damning new report by...
View ArticleAfrican and European leaders renew efforts to tackle migration
African and European leaders gathered in Paris on Monday (28 August) to broach the subject of migration, where support was expressed for moving the EU’s external border into Africa itself, so that...
View ArticleArrivals surge on Greek islands despite EU-Turkey deal
With Turkey being one of the items on the agenda of the EU summit starting on Thursday (19 October), AFP is reporting that migrants are still coming to Greek islands despite the EU-Turkey deal to stem...
View ArticleMigration to dominate ‘Club Med’ summit in Rome
The heads of seven southern European states gather in Rome today (10 January) to tackle one of the stubbornest thorns in the EU's side: flows of migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries.
View ArticleHuman traffickers capitalise on ‘chaos’ at Europe’s migrant hotspots
Human traffickers are capitalising on widespread chaos at migrant reception centres across southern Europe to transport their victims undetected and lure other migrants into forced labour, a European...
View ArticleOnly 16% of asylum seekers in Greece to be sent to Turkey, despite EU deal
Only "16% of asylum seekers" who have arrived in Greece are likely to be sent to Turkey despite a controversial EU deal, the former head of Greece's asylum service said Sunday.
View ArticleEU officials fear new wave of migrants after Greek court ruling
A top Greek court ruled on Wednesday (18 April) that migrants landing on Greek islands should no longer be held there while asylum claims are assessed, a decision raising alarm among EU officials in...
View ArticleFar-right group attacks migrants on Greek island
A far-right group launched a violent attack overnight on migrants staging a sit-in protest on the Greek island of Lesbos, injuring around a dozen people, police said Monday (23 April).
View ArticleItaly cannot be ‘Europe’s refugee camp’, Salvini says
Italy's new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday that "common sense" was needed to stop the country from being "Europe's refugee camp" as he visited a migrant centre in the south.
View Article‘Controlled centres’ for migrants – not ‘hotspots’, say EU leaders
The European Council’s idea of “controlled centres” for migrants put forward in its conclusions is strikingly similar to the 2015 hotspots. EURACTIV.fr reports.
View ArticleActivists held in Greece for illegally aiding migrants
Police in Greece said on Tuesday (28 August) they had arrested three members of a Greek NGO on suspicion of helping migrants illegally enter the country.
View ArticleGreece’s Moria migrant camp faces closure over public health fears
Greece's biggest migrant camp faces closure next month unless authorities clean up "uncontrollable amounts of waste", the regional governor said, citing public health risks.
View ArticleGreece vows to improve conditions on island hotspots
Greece's migration minister on Tuesday (18 September) pledged to improve living conditions for migrants in camps on islands in the Aegean Sea, where he said arrivals had doubled this summer.
View ArticleMalta demands EU solution before migrants disembark
Malta is pushing other European countries to take in around 250 migrants in its care before it will allow dozens of people stuck on two rescue boats to disembark, a government source said Tuesday (8...
View Article‘Hell on earth’: The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos
Living conditions in the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, housing thousands of refugees, are particularly difficult, according to Oxfam. As the weather turns colder, the charity is calling for...
View ArticleAsylum-seekers in Greece, Italy hotspots face ‘years of limbo’
Asylum-seekers crowded into "hotspots" in Greece and Italy face limbo that can drag on for years because of legal bottlenecks and poorly performing EU schemes, a report said Wednesday (13 November).
View ArticleGreece to start setting up closed-type migrant camps
Greece will begin setting up closed-type camps for asylum seekers on its Aegean islands in March, the country's migration minister said Monday (10 February), in response to growing tensions over the...
View ArticleMigrants clash with Greek police, diplomatic efforts underway
Greek police fired tear gas to repel hundreds of stone-throwing migrants who tried to force their way across the border from Turkey on Sunday (1 March), with thousands more behind them after Ankara...
View ArticleGreece to restrict migrant camp movements in virus measure
Greece has said it is placing migrant camps across the country on a two-week shutdown to visitors to ward off the new coronavirus. “Visits (to camps) by individuals and organisations are suspended for...
View Article‘Corona time’ in Europe’s main migrant camp in virus lockdown
In Europe's biggest asylum seeker camp of Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos, authorities are trying to keep residents apart from a population with at least three coronavirus cases.
View ArticleGreece to move migrants out of congested island camps
Greece will this month begin moving hundreds of elderly and ailing asylum seekers out of congested island camps to protect them from the coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Thursday (16 April).
View Article17 newly arrived migrants in Lesbos test Covid-19 positive
Greece has been lucky – 17 migrants, all from Somalia, are safely isolated at Kara Tepe camp in the island of Lesbos, a show-case reception centre on the island. But at the overcrowded Moria camp on...
View ArticleGreek PM promises permanent migrant centre after fire on Lesbos
Greece will build a permanent migrant reception centre on Lesbos to replace the overcrowded refugee camp destroyed by a fire last week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday (13...
View ArticleGreek government accuses migrants of ‘burning’ Moria camp
Greece on Monday (14 September) accused migrants of deliberately burning their overcrowded camp last week on Lesbos island, where hundreds reluctantly moved to a new temporary site with "no showers or...
View ArticleGermany to take in 1,500 refugees from Greek islands, Michel urges for more...
Germany said it will take in more than 1,500 refugees from Greece from the island of Lesbos as Berlin tried to rally a fresh EU response to a years-long migrant crisis that flared anew.
View ArticleThousands march in Germany urging EU to take in Moria refugees
Thousands of people demonstrated Sunday (20 September) in Berlin and other German cities, urging the European Union to take in migrants left without shelter after a fire destroyed their biggest camp in...
View Article‘Innovative ways’ of evading responsibilities for refugees
A regrettable result of the EU-Turkey Statement from 2016 is that the model continues to serve to EU member states seeking innovative ways to evade responsibility for refugees, writes Charlotte Slente.
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