Refugee

Greece is not only limited to its physical borders. The country has managed to expand and punch above its weight especially because it relied on the other Greece, the Greeks of the diaspora, who provided assistance at times of need and exerted influence in centers of power.

Turkey is hosting around 4 million refugees and has already spent $40 billion on them, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, recalling that his country is the top nation in providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and the least developed nations.

The main priority of new European Commission will be the urgent agreement on a sustainable, coherent and integrated European refugee and migration policy, the European Commissioner-designate in charge of Protecting our European way of life, Margaritas Schinas, said in a pre-recorded message for the 2019 Thessaloniki Summit on Thursday.

Turkey and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) discussed voluntary repatriation of Syrians to their home country on Nov. 11, Turkish Foreign Ministry has said.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias called on Turkey to respect its commitments on controlling refugee and migrant departures from its shores, and slammed EU member-states that refuse to assume their share of the burden.

An interdisciplinary team of the University of Thessaly won the top prize in the international iGEM Synthetic Biology competition organised by MIT university in Boston.

At least five closed pre-departure centers will reportedly be created for migrants who are not entitled to asylum in Greece, while the government will seek to ensure the return to Turkey of 10,000 by the end of 2020.

Greece is facing an "asymmetrical threat" from Turkey vis-a-vis the refugee and migration crisis, and the European union is "incapable and unwilling" to deal with the issue, except "superficially, putting money into it," the honorary chief of the Greek armed forces, Konstantinos Ginis, told Skai on Tuesday.

The procedures for granting asylum to refugees need to be radically reformed so that the examination of applications can be accelerated and those who are genuinely entitled to protection can be identified.

Human rights groups urged Greece on Tuesday to scrap plans they say will restrict access to protection for asylum seekers as the government said the burden of dealing with an influx of migrants was getting too heavy to bear.