Aftermath of war

An Iranian refugee who was detained in Turkey while trying to travel to Spain with a fake passport has been ordered by a Turkish court to report on the similarities between the Quran and the Bible following his claim that he could be persecuted at home for converting to Christianity.

Something has obviously gone terribly wrong in Greece's handling of the refugee crisis. The country has gone from Nobel nominations for its response to being pilloried on an international scale over the inhuman conditions that prevail at migrant reception centers on the islands.

Eight people, including a child, were rescued by firefighters shortly after midnight on Thursday, after a blaze broke out inside the refugee reception centre in Lavrio, southeastern Attica.

All eight refugees were transferred to the nearby health centre for precautionary reasons and are in good health, state-run news agency ANA-MPA reported.

The Greek Council for Refugees presents "Refugees In," a two-day event at the Bios venue addressing the many different aspects of the biggest wave of migration into Europe since World War II.

The number of migrants waiting for their asylum application to be processed in the notorious reception and processing center in Moria, Lesvos, dropped below 6,000, based on data from the Migration Policy Ministry on Thursday.

The Turkish Red Crescent hopes to deliver thousands of letters that were penned by prisoners of war some 100 years ago to their original addressees.

More than 42,000 refugees sought asylum in Greece last year, according to the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, ESPON, whose statistics showed that a total of 204,718 refugees arrived in the European Union in 2017.

According to the network, 42,305 refugees applied for asylum in Greece after crossing from Turkey in 2017.

As Greece struggles with a continuing influx of undocumented migrants from both its land and sea borders, Migration Minister Dimitris Vitsas indicated Thursday that authorities will seek a country alliance at the next European Union summit on the refugee crisis.

A team behind the Paris-based Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow, YTT, research and educational project has collaborated with thousands of refugees in over 30 camps and squats across Europe and North Africa, collecting their voices.

'Today' by a 13-year-old Iraqi-Kurd boy currently living in Kara Tepe Refugee Camp, Lesbos Island, Greece. Photo: courtesy of YTT

The European Commission has awarded an additional 43.7 million euros in emergency assistance to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support Greece in responding to migratory challenges, the EU's executive body said Wednesday.