International Organization for Migration

British news outlet “Guardian” correspondent Helena Smith writes of the growing fury among the residents of the Greek island of Lesbos over the central government’s inability to deal with the ongoing problem of the rising number of refugees and illegal migrants and the overpopulation.

Some 249 Rohingya refugees have died on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border since Aug. 31, a UN body said on Friday, quoted by Anadolu Agency. 

More than 607,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state in Myanmar as security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched villages.

With Turkey being one of the items on the agenda of the EU summit starting on Thursday (19 October), AFP is reporting that migrants are still coming to Greek islands despite the EU-Turkey deal to stem the arrival of refugees from Turkish territory.

A group of 234 refugees departed from Athens to Lyon, France, on Wednesday under the European Union's relocation program which is co-implemented by the Greek office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The group included 190 individuals from Syria, 27 from Iraq, and 11 from the Palestinian authority.

U.N. agencies said on Monday they were trying to provide urgent help to large numbers of migrants held and then stranded in the smuggling hub of Sabratha as rival factions battled for control of the city.

Some 82 percent of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries would like to return to their homes if security and service are provided, the Middle East and North Africa Director of UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, Amin Awad said on Wednesday.

The United Nations appealed on Thursday for massive help for nearly 400,000 Muslims from Myanmar who have fled to Bangladesh, with concern growing that the number could keep rising, unless Myanmar ends what critics denounce as "ethnic cleansing".

More than 18,000 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have fled the worst violence to grip northwest Myanmar in at least five years, while thousands more are stuck at the Bangladesh border or scrambling to reach it.

Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Minister Zoran Djordjevic met Tuesday with representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Djordjevic spoke with Regional Coordinator Peter Van Der Auweraert and Head of IOM's Office in Serbia Lidija Markovic, the Serbian government announced on its website.

The European Union should use military means to defend its external borders from migrants entering illegally, Bulgaria’s defense minister, Krasimir Karakachano, has said.