Refugee

Debates over the asylum claims of Syrian refugees in our country and across Europe have been sparked from the first moment the fall of the Assad regime. The asylum application process is temporarily “frozen” for thousands of Syrians who are in our country, as the main argument for their asylum applications, persecution by the Assad regime, may be unfounded.

With developments in Syria being the “elephant in the room,” Greece’s Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) convened at 10:00 AM under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

More than 1,000 underage refugees are at risk of abuse and exploitation by adults at mixed migrant camps, according to rights groups, after a government decision earlier this year reduced the number of spots at appropriate accommodation for unaccompanied minors from 2,500 to 1,500, as part of cost-cutting measures. 

Decisions on the examination of asylum applications of Syrian refugees fall within the competence of member states, Stefan de Kersmacher, the Commission spokesman responsible for migration issues, said today.

Following Germany and Austria, Greece has also suspended all processes for examining asylum applications from Syrians, following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

The United Nations refugee agency has voiced concern at a rise in deaths of migrants trying to reach Greece by sea in small boats from Turkey, following two fatal shipwrecks this week.

The UNHCR said in a statement Friday that 17 people have died in such accidents this month, while the total so far this year is at least 45 deaths.

Bulgaria is facing over 400 court decisions due to its refusal to provide social benefits to children of Ukrainian citizens granted temporary protection in the country.

The refugee center in Shengjin in Albania, where irregular migrants that reached Italy will be transferred. Rome and Athens react to Berlin's pressure for a specific reference to the reactivation of Dublin in the conclusions of Thursday's European Council on migration.

The head of the UNHCR warned today that displacement crises in Lebanon and Sudan may worsen but stated that stricter border measures are not the solution, calling them ineffective and sometimes illegal.

Europe's top human rights court has ruled that Cyprus violated the right of two Syrian nationals to seek asylum in the island nation after keeping them, and more than two dozen other people, aboard a boat at sea for two days before sending them back to Lebanon.