More protests have been planned for next week on the Greek island of Chios after the local municipal council of the eastern Aegean island rejected government proposals to open a new, closed pre-departure center for migrants on the island.
German NGO Mission Lifeline has referred to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz as a ''baby Hitler'' on Twitter after the publication of an interview in which he criticized NGOs rescuing migrants.
Zeinab and her husband fled Afghanistan two years ago and arrived at the overcrowded Moria refugee camp in October. Eight months into her pregnancy, Zeinab sleeps in a tent on rough terrain, surrounded by what international NGOs and the EU have slammed as appalling conditions. Zeineb is scared about the future but tries hard not to be discouraged. InfoMigrants' reporter Holly Young spoke to Zeinab on Lesbos.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has renewed calls on Germany and other countries to take in migrants and refugees currently stuck in Greece. At the same time, his government plans to expedite deportations in the new year.
Greece is living a new migrant crisis. The number of people arriving, mainly on the islands close to Turkey, has more than doubled since July. The reception facilities on these islands are now massively overcrowded and conditions are deteriorating for the migrants and also for the islanders. John Laurenson sent this Postcard from Samos.
Greece's national public health body and Doctors of the World are carrying out a 5-day vaccination program for children and teenagers at the Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos. Separately, new EU border agency Frontex regulations have come into force.
The number of migrants and refugees stuck on the Greek islands has peaked at above 40,000. The Greek government hopes that the introduction of new laws next year will help bring the numbers down — by deporting many asylum seekers back to Turkey.
Berlin's mayor Michael Müller has announced that the German capital is willing to take in 70 unaccompanied migrant children and young people from the Greek island of Lesbos.
Pope Francis is again establishing his own ‘humanitarian corridor’ from Greece to Italy. His latest decision is to send a close aide, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, to the Greek island of Lesbos to pick up 33 asylum seekers and bring them back to Rome.
In the latest attempt to ease the overcrowding in migrant camps on the Greek Aegean islands, over 350 migrants left Lesbos and Chios over the weekend. 10,000 migrants have been moved to mainland Greece since July, but given the unabated influx of migrants from Turkey, that effort is not nearly enough.
Children make up over 45% of the people living in and around Greece's infamous Moria camp. These thousands of children are living in unbearable conditions and with very few facilities. InfoMigrants takes a closer look at some of the basic amenities that are there for Moria's children.
Migrants housed in Greece's island camps are living "in utter chaos and without any dignity," Doctors Without Borders says. The charity described one camp on Chios where 300 people are forced to share a single toilet.