Four migrants, three of them children, died on Tuesday after a boat in which they and 23 others were trying to cross from Turkey to Greece sank, the Greek coast guard said. While 22 people were rescued, one person is still missing.
After a fire destroyed the Moria camp in September 2020, the reception procedure for migrants in Greece was supposed to improve. But, over the last year, the practice of "pushbacks" has become widespread and the conservative Greek government has passed several laws that significantly tighten the conditions for obtaining international protection in the country.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has spoken out against a new center for asylum seekers that was opened by the EU and the Greek government on September 18 on the Greek island of Samos, saying that it is "like a prison".
The new facility is one of five being built with EU funds. Rights groups have complained that the Samos camp, with its barbed-wire fences and surveillance cameras, is more like a jail.
On the Greek island of Lesbos, refugees and migrants still face harsh living conditions, a year after a fire destroyed the infamous Moria camp, according to a new report by Oxfam and the Greek Council for Refugees. The two organizations also criticized Greece's treatment of Afghan refugees.
The infamous Moria refugee camp on the Greek island Lesbos burned down one year ago. Living conditions for migrants living there have hardly improved.
The Greek migration ministry has said that fewer than 5,400 migrants are now living in the once overcrowded and unhygienic camps on the Greek Aegean Islands. In April 2020, around 40,000 people were in the camps.
Greece has once again blamed Turkey for "violating its obligations" after rescuing 10 migrants from a capsized vessel in the Aegean Sea on Friday that - says Greek Migration Minister - "was allowed to depart from Turkish territorial waters."
Urging the EU to push Turkey to stick to its obligations under a 2016 refugee deal, Greece has requested the immediate return to Turkey of almost 2.000 migrants living in camps on the Greek Aegean Islands. Turkey continues to refuse to take back rejected asylum seekers.
The non-governmental organization Aegean Boat Report has vehemently rejected accusations by Greek police that its members, along with those of other organizations, are involved in facilitating the illegal transfer of refugees and migrants to the Greek islands or that it was involved in espionage.
Three months ago, 28-year-old Stephanie* flew from Kinshasa to Istanbul to join her husband. To reach Europe, the young woman took a boat from Turkey. She said that her boat was turned back by the Greek coast guard, and that she and the other migrants were threatened with guns. This is her story.
The Greek government has said that construction of the camp intended to replace the temporary Mavrovouni camp on the Greek island of Lesbos still isn't underway, despite promises to have it up and running by September.