A Somali asylum seeker has been sentenced to 146 years in prison for human smuggling by a Greek court, according to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. Other migrants defended the man in court, saying that he started steering their boat to save lives after a capsizing.
More than 30 migrants in the Mavrovouni camp on the Greek island of Lesbos have tested positive for COVID-19, Greek authorities say. Around 100 people have been put in quarantine.
While on the Greek island of Lesbos the Kara Tepe camp is closing, 6,000 people in the Moria 2 site are living in dire conditions, according to a new report issued by Oxfam and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR). The groups call on authorities to revise the "de-facto detention system" for migrants.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has condemned the Greek government's decision to close the Kara Tepe 1 refugee camp on the island of Lesbos. The camp is considered "one of the few places that guaranteed security and dignity to nearly 400 vulnerable men, women and children."
Greece's migration minister, Notis Mitarakis, has announced that more migrants are now leaving the country than arriving. He has also said that flows of people to the Aegean Islands have decreased significantly.
A new migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has been given the go ahead after a vote by the local municipal council. The exact location of the camp is not yet clear.
Human Rights Watch has warned that migrants living in an area of a camp in Lesbos contaminated with lead are at serious risk. It says that children and pregnant women could develop lead poisoning if the government fails to act.
After the final relocation flight with refugees from Greek camps landed in Germany this week, German aid organizations criticized the end to resettlement from Lesbos and demanded an extension. Since April 2020, Germany has taken in a total of 2,662 people from the Greek Aegean Islands.
The Greek island of Lesbos has become a symbol of Europe's failed refugee policies. European ideals are falling by the wayside in the refugee camps, but there are few alternatives elsewhere. Florian Schmitz reports.
Another flight has landed in Germany, bringing with it 162 refugees who had previously been in Greek migrant camps. They are part of a contingent of recognized refugees that Germany agreed to relocate from Greece.
Five years ago, the migration deal between the European Union and Turkey was signed. The deal has trapped migrants and refugees on the Greek islands, exacerbating mental health issues and re-traumatizing many, says NGO Intersos.
Two Afghan youths have been sentenced to five years in prison each. A juvenile court on Lesbos found them guilty of starting the fire that destroyed the Moria refugee camp in September last year.