Border guards

Some 1,300 migrants were detained off the coast of northwestern Çanakkale province as they attempted to reach the nearby Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 29, Turkish coast guard officials have said.

Plans for three million refugees within European borders and the social and economic impact this could have were examined in a confidential report on the refugee crisis dated November 10, 2015. The document obtained by Proto Thema states that the European Commission is preparing new measures that are to affect Greece.

The European Commission intends to propose a common European border and coast guard in order to better guard the EU’s external borders, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said.

The proposal will be officially put forward within December, while he also highlighted the need for greater European cooperation on this issue.

By European Council President Donald Tusk

The purpose of our informal meeting, which took place right after the summit with our African partners, was to speed up the implementation of the decisions taken so far by the European Council.

EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos on Monday referred to the significant progress achieved on the refugees issue within a month at the Justice and Home Affairs Council which was held in Brussels.

Mr. Avramopoulos referred extensively to the hotspots and the redistribution system.

Authorities rescued several hundred migrants from the Aegean Sea off eastern Greek islands in relatively calm waters on Nov. 7, also reporting the death of a toddler.

The boy, aged 2-3 years, was found off the coast of Lesbos fully clothed, including boots, and wearing an orange life jacket, the Greek coast guard said in a statement.

About 800,000 migrants have entered the EU illegally so far this year, said the head of the EU border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leger.

In an interview for the German Bild he warned that the influx of migrants has probably not yet reached its peak and urged European states to detain those who are not granted asylum so that they could be quickly be returned to the country of origin.

Frontex Chief Fabrice Leggeri told German tabloid Bild that the influx of refugees to Europe is expected to increase. He called on EU countries to “arrest if necessary” in cases where refugees do not have the right to asylum status. “Whoever travels illegally doesn’t have the right to receive asylum and should be rapidly returned to their country,” he told Bild.

Dramatic scenes were noted in the Aegean as 14 refugees lost their lives in a ship wreck between Kalolymnos and Kalymnos on Thursday night, whereas another three were dragged dead from the sea at dawn on Friday north of Rhodes.

An agreement was reached at the high-level meeting in Brussels on Sunday to temporary accommodate 100,000 refugees in the Balkans as Europe struggles to cope with the ongoing influx.