Frontex

Authorities are concerned over a possible spike in migrant inflows after a third boat arrived on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos since the beginning of May on Sunday, with 36 people on board from Afghanistan and African countries.

The migrants were transferred to a makeshift structure in Megala Therma for 14 days of quarantine.

Officials in Athens are trying to make sense of what they see as erratic behavior emanating from Ankara, which on the one hand is requesting a moratorium on military exercises in the Aegean due to the coronavirus pandemic, and on the other is continuing its tactic of low-level tensions regarding the Greek islands.

The Civil Aviation Authority announced on Wednesday that it would extend a ban on commercial flights to and from six countries until May 15 as part of the measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus in Greece.

According to the notice to airmen (NOTAMS) issued by the authority, the ban concerns Italy, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany.

EU border agency Frontex said on Friday it had deployed an additional 100 border guards to Greece's northeastern border to assist in the country's efforts to prevent migrants trapped in the buffer zone from entering its territory.

Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis and Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri were at the Kastanies crossing on the Greek-Turkish border at Evros on Thursday morning to oversee the deployment of dozens of guards from the European border agency.

Frontex's plan to assist Greece in guarding its borders with Turkey shortly after the country filed a request for support last August was discussed in an exclusive interview by Kathimerini with the French executive director of the European Union's External Borders Agency, Fabrice Leggeri. 

FRONTEX will deploy forces in Greece next week for rapid land and sea intervention, the spokeswoman for the European Union Border Control Agency said.

Romanian Crown Custodian Margareta and Prince Radu on Wednesday started a three-day visit to the Republic of Poland, the first foreign visit of the Royal Family in 2020. According to romaniaregala.ro, Her Royal Highness Margareta will participate in the opening gala of the "Women Leadership Forum," a conference that takes place in Warsaw, under the High Patronage of the Crown Custodian.

Just one day after the Greek government's 1 March decision to request immediate EU assistance in guarding the country's eastern borders, FRONTEX approved deployment of its RABIT rapid action force to guard the Greek and European borders from a major wave of migrants from the Turkish coast.

The European Commission has today called on Turkey to return to compliance with the bilateral migration agreement. Commission spokesmen declined to give a clear answer on whether Ankara violated Art. 3 of the agreement, which stipulates that Turkey will take all necessary steps to prevent the emergence of new roads to the EU by land and water for migrants.