At least three people were hurt in a clash between asylum seekers in a town on the Greek island of Samos. After mass violence erupted and fires broke out in the severely overcrowded migrant camp, Greek authorities evacuated the camp.
The constant influx of refugees and migrants by boat to the shores of Greece's eastern Aegean islands from Turkey continues at an alarming rate this week, with close to 700 people arriving on Lesbos, Chios, and Samos in the past 48 hours.
Greece is set to open two new "transit camps" on the mainland to speed up transfers of migrants and refugees from its islands. The initiative is an attempt to reduce overcrowding in the camps on Lesbos, Chios and Samos.
Authorities say EU border agency Frontex has provided the Greek coast guard with a crewless airship to help combat irregular immigration and to augment search and rescue operations in the eastern Aegean Sea, where close to 20,000 migrants are staying in overcrowded camps on Greek islands. Separately, police found nearly 130 migrants in vehicles and detained two smugglers in two unrelated incidents, one in Greece and one in North Macedonia.
The Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome is promoting an initiative thanks to which 150 volunteers, together with a group of cultural mediators, will take turns to spend the summer with refugees on the Greek islands of Lesvos and Samos. The initiative runs through August 31.
The Aita Mari was supposed to run search and rescue missions in the Central Mediterranean. But the Spanish government denied the ship permission to do so and blocked it from setting sail for months. That's why the crew decided to go on an aid mission in Greece instead.
Spanish charities including Proactiva Open Arms received the green light to set sail from the port of Barcelona on Wednesday. Instead of returning to the central Mediterranean to save migrants, the NGOs will deliver aid supplies to migrants on the Greek islands.
One woman reportedly died as a boat overturned on the rocky coast of the Greek island of Samos. 50 migrants survived.
A primary school on the Greek island of Samos is at the center of a controversy after a group of local parents refused to send their children to school. Their protest is indicative of a growing frustration among local Greek communities over the arrivals of refugees since 2015.
A boat carrying migrants has sunk off the Greek island of Samos. Greek authorities said three people drowned, including two small boys. Nine others were rescued.
Two new facilities are set to open soon in a bid to ease the pressure on the overcrowded refugee camps on the north eastern Aegean islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros.
On the Greek island of Samos, thousands of migrants and refugees from Africa feel trapped. They are disappointed with the long asylum procedures, leaving them in limbo in overcrowded camps amid horrid living conditions.