Aftermath of war

The European Union's chief executive, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed sympathy with Turkey over the conflict in Syria on Monday but said Ankara deciding to let refugees and migrants through to Europe "cannot be" the answer.

"The United States recognizes Greece's right to enforce its laws along its borders," a State Department official has said in response to a question from Hellas Journal, a Greek-language network based in New York, after hundreds of migrants tried to force their way across the border from Turkey after Ankara relaxed curbs on their movement.

Inhabitants of the island of Lesvos have gathered in several places, some preventing arriving migrants from disembarking and others preventing buses carrying migrants from reaching the Moria camp.

The Serbian Assembly on Saturday adopted a new law boosting the rights of military invalids and giving some new rights to war veterans from the 1990s wars and World War II, although it failed to extend benefits to victims of conflicts outside Serbian territory.

When you have the migrant and refugee crisis threatening you from the east and the new coronavirus to your west - both serious problems that you have no responsibility as a country or as an individual for creating - the only thing you can do as a Greek is to stay calm and get organized.

Over the past five years, more than 2 million people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better future in Europe, according to the United Nations. The reception they meet with has been reported on dozens of times by journalists and think tanks, with most reactions ranging from skepticism to downright fear.

More than two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents in a survey conducted on the islands of the northern Aegean by Kappa Research on February 11-13 consider migrants and refugees a threat to the country.

Moreover, 90 percent said that increased migrant flows have adversely impacted the islands, while another 56 percent said no compensatory measures could improve the situation. 

The Finnish government says it has agreed to take in up to 175 asylum-seekers from camps in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta "to alleviate the humanitarian situation" experienced by refugees in the Mediterranean members of the European Union.

Whether one agrees or not with the views of historian Antonis Liakos - who said that Greece due its demographic problem needs to take in one million refugees - the government must take specific decisions regarding how refugees and migrants will be integrated into Greek society.

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias on Thursday announced a legislative initiative to facilitate the immediate hiring of medical staff at the hospitals on the eastern Aegean islands that bear the brunt of migration influx.
Speaking on Alpha TV, Kikilias said that the hospitals needed to be supported because they were originally designed to serve the needs of the local population.