Greece - Page 14

KASTANIES, Greece (AP) – The United Nations said Sunday that at least 13,000 people were massed on Turkey’s land border with Greece, after Turkey officially declared its western borders were open to migrants and refugees hoping to head into the European Union.

The Turkish government has announced that for the next 72 hours it will open its border with Syria and allow any and all migrants to go to Europe unhindered.

Protest groups begun setting up blockades Monday aimed at stopping the government from building new migrant detention centers.

Greece says it is suspending an emergency plan to build migrant detention camps on Greek islands near the Turkish coast.

(AFP) — Greece will only grant refugee protection for three years as it struggles to integrate foreigners, the conservative government’s migration minister Notis Mitarachi said in remarks published Sunday.

Around 2,000 migrants took to the streets on the Greek island of Lesbos, with some clashing with police, to protest the Greek government’s tougher migration policy.

Reuters filed an exclusive report on Monday citing three “senior Western security officials” who blamed a recent wave of cyberattacks in Europe and the Middle East on “hackers acting in the interests of the Turkish government.”

First Lady Melania Trump kicked off a new year of her iconic style, carefully crafted with friend Hervé Pierre, in a timeless jumpsuit that continues to draw on the original aesthetic of 1970s Celine.

Israel, Greece, and Cyprus signed a historic agreement Thursday for the Eastern Mediterranean project that will see Israeli gas delivered to Europe via an undersea pipeline, overturning Turkey’s efforts to thwart the deal.

President Donald Trump spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi by telephone on Thursday and agreed to oppose “foreign exploitation” of the situation in Libya, where terrorists, warlords, and rival governments have been fighting ever since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. 

President Erdogan has warned Europe that it would face another wave of refugees as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces advance into Idlib. 

The Greek government predicts the number of new migrant arrivals will rise next year and is preparing for as many as 100,000 asylum seekers.

The pope’s right-hand man for charitable outreach has returned to Rome from the Greek island of Lesbos with 33 migrants in tow and a harsh assessment of the state of affairs for migrants on the island.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece´s prime minister says he will ask other NATO members at the alliance´s London summit to support Greece in the face of fellow member Turkey´s attempts to encroach on Greek sovereignty, notably last week´s agreement with Libya delimiting maritime borders in the Mediterranean.

Both Italy and Greece have seen a new influx of migrants in the last several days, with Greece alone receiving over 700 migrants in 24 hours.

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced that his government will deploy over a thousand more border guards, upgrade its sea patrols, and institute more restrictive holding centres for migrants as he said his country will “shut the door” to illegals.

The Greek coastguard has said more than 1,350 migrants arrived on various islands in the Aegean Sea over the weekend as tensions boil in the already overcrowded camps.

A U.S.-Jordanian dual national Islamic State fighter who has been stranded on the border between Turkey and Greece will be sent to the U.S., according to reports.

A coalition of Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Cypriots, and supporters organized a large protest outside of the White House on Wednesday against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting with President Donald Trump.

Xi Jinping flexed his soft power muscles during a play to bring Greece closer to China’s sphere of influence, when he called for the British Museum to return ancient artworks to Athens.

Members of the right-wing group United Macedonians have stirred controversy by organizing a pork barbeque against the transfer of migrants to the Greek mainland.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities announced Saturday they had arrested three people and detained a further 15 in a “wide sweep” by the police’s counterterrorism squad on suspected left-wing extremists that also yielded an arms cache.

BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union is preparing to pay Turkey tens of millions of euros to help bolster its coast guard, a senior EU official said Wednesday, as increasing numbers of people leave the country in hopes of finding sanctuary or jobs in Europe.

A Greek woman was reunited Sunday with two of the Jewish siblings she saved from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The transfer of migrants from overcrowded camps on the islands to the Greek mainland continued over the weekend, with authorities saying 415 arrived at the port of Eleusis west of Athens Saturday afternoon and another 380 expected around noon Sunday.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) – Police in North Macedonia say they have found 81 migrants hidden in a house near the country’s northern border with Serbia and arrested a suspected migrant trafficker.

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies revealed on Wednesday the discovery of a people-smuggling network ferrying illegal migrants from Turkey to European Union countries such as Italy and Greece.

The Greek government has evacuated more migrants from the island of Lesbos to the mainland as the country prepares for a potential new wave of migrants from Turkey.

A migrant camp on the Greek Island of Samos has been set ablaze after a knife fight which left three injured erupted between Syrian and Afghans over food.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) – Police in North Macedonia say a patrol has found 45 migrants on a main highway near the central town of Veles and arrested a van driver.

As tens of thousands of illegal immigrants continue to enter Europe after crossing by boat from Turkey, Greece said it will call on the European Union to impose sanctions on member states that refuse to accept their share of new arrivals.

German interior minister Horst Seehofer travelled to Turkey and Greece this week to meet with government leaders to prevent a new migrant crisis.

The hulking Greek coastguard officer gazed intently as another group of migrants, the fifth of the day, boarded a minibus after landing on a beach on the island of Lesbos.

At least two Afghans died Sunday when a riot broke out in their rescue camp on the Greek island of Lesbos as illegal migrant numbers surge once more across the Mediterranean.

Ten undocumented Syrian migrants who were disguised as a Ukrainian volleyball team were stopped and arrested on Sunday by Greek police. All were arrested at Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos airport after border security officials found the Ukrainian passports they were carrying

Greek police said Saturday they have arrested a suspect in the 1985 hijacking of a flight from Athens that became a multi-day ordeal and included the slaying of an American.