Refugee

About 11,000 recognised refugees are facing an uncertain future as they will gradually have to leave their current accommodation facilities starting in June, as part of the Migration Policy Ministry's plan to replace them with asylum seekers from the islands, in a bid to decongest the local camps.

It is a crisis waiting to happen: About 11,000 refugees who have been granted asylum in Greece are still housed in reception facilities.

If they are made to leave their accommodation, the majority of them will end up in the streets.

Migration and Asylum Policy Minister Notis Mitarakis on Tuesday held talks with Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis.

According to a post by Mitarakis on social media, talks focus on the integration of refugees and on ways to contain the impact of the migration crisis on the Greek capital. [ANA-MPA]
 

The Greek police have been bringing in asylum seekers living in the country and expelling them to Turkey by force while using the coronavirus pandemic as a cover for their abuses, according to a report published on May 20. 

A group of 50 refugees and asylum seekers flew from Greece to Britain on Monday to reunite with relatives in a transfer that had been held up by the coronavirus lockdown.

A person wears a protective face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as refugees and migrants from overcrowded migrant camps who will be transferred to Britain where they will reunite with their families, board their flight at Athens International Airport, Monday. [Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters]

Despite a dip in arrivals of migrants from Turkey in recent months, the number of asylum seekers in Greece is significant, totaling 120,000, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency that was made public on Wednesday.

Some spoke of dire conditions in the centre and the growth of gangs stealing from and assaulting other residents.

Others, migrants trying to reach Western Europe, said they had been left out in the cold despite seeking refuge at the centre, its doors closed under a lockdown across the country to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

The Netherlands will give Greece a 62-bed mobile hospital unit for refugee facilities, as part of a broader agreement on migration reached between Alternate Minister of Migration George Koumoutsakos and Dutch Migration Minister Ankie Broekers-Knol on Friday.

Switzerland has agreed to take in 22 unaccompanied migrant children from Greece, it was announced Thursday following a telephone conversation between Alternate Minister of Migration and Asylum Giorgos Koumoutsakos and his Swiss counterpart Mario Gattiker.
Switzerland said it will also contribute 1.1 million Swiss francs to support Greece in managing the migrant/refugee crisis.