Migration Ministry

The favorable value-added tax status of five eastern Aegean islands could be extended beyond June 30 if the European Commission establishes that the number of migrants and refugees who have landed on their shores exceed the capacity of their respective reception centers.

The Migration Ministry is on a collision course with the Hellenic Single Public Procurement Authority, the independent body overseeing state contracts, due to a government bill aimed at accelerating the approval of contracts for refugee housing.

Migration Policy Minister Dimitris Vitsas said Thursday there is a people trafficking ring operating on the island of Samos.

Municipal authorities in Thessaloniki met Tuedsay with representatives of the Migration Ministry, the Greek Police and nongovernmental organizations to discuss the need for new facilities to accommodate hundreds of migrants arriving in the northern port from Evros.

As conditions at the 28 official migrant camps on the Greek mainland deteriorate under pressure from the transfer of thousands of people from inadequate facilities on the islands, many new arrivals are being placed in private apartments and hotels.

The Regional Authority of the Northern Aegean on Saturday slapped Greece's Migration Ministry with fines worth 100,000 euros over the dismal conditions at two island migrant and refugee camps.

A delegation from Samos is to travel to Athens in the coming days to present its objections to plans for a new migration reception center at a military facility on the island to officials of the Migration Ministry and the Hellenic National Defence General Staff (GEETHA). 

The leader of the Moria community on the Aegean island of Lesvos on Tuesday entered the third day of a hunger strike launched on Sunday to demand a solution for chronic overcrowding at the local reception center for migrants, rejecting the proposals of a visiting government official. 

A batch of new arrivals over the weekend pushed the population at the already overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos close to the 7,500 mark, after it had managed to ease down to 6,872 late last week - meager respite at a facility built for a maximum of 3,000 people.

Dozens of asylum seekers who left the Moria migrant processing center for other facilities on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos will be barred from the process if they do not return to the official camp, the Migration Ministry announced on Monday.