Via Keep Talking Greece – Does President Recep Tayyip Erdogan let the EU-Turkey deal on migration go burst? A significant increase in the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey has been recorded in the last six days. A total of 1,196 people arrived in the Greek islands of northern and eastern Aegean Sea in the time Friday, August 18th – Wednesday, August 23rd 2017.
Continue reading 1,190 new refugees arrive in 5 days. Does Erdogan let EU-Turkey deal go burst?
Category Archives: News Digest
HarekAct offers a topical and chronological collection of news on the EU-Turkish border regime under this section. We link to external newspapers and websites and do not hold the copyright.
Views and opinions expressed in the articles published on HarekAct are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of all editorial board members.
Fears of new Black Sea migration route after Romania intercepts asylum boat
Via Middle East Eye – Romanian authorities said on Monday that they caught a fishing boat carrying 68 asylum seekers, including 23 children, off Romania’s coast, raising fears that a new migrating route to Europe has opened up.
Government officials reported intercepting the boat, carrying Iraqis and Syrians, late on Sunday evening in the Black Sea in Romania’s southeastern Constanta region, in the second such incident in the last week.
“They were accompanied by two Turkish traffickers,” Ionela Pasat, a spokeswoman for the Constanta coastguard, told AFP.
The group was brought to the port of Mangalia for medical examinations on Monday before being handed over to the immigration authorities, she said.
Coastguards reported a boat with 69 Iraqi asylum seekers in Romanian waters on 13 August. One Bulgarian and one Cypriot were taken into custody on suspicion of human trafficking.
Despite pleging to take in 1,942 refugees on Friday, EU member Romania has avoided the largest migration crisis since the Second World War, due to being outside of the European Union’s passport-free Schengen zone.
The route from Turkey to Greece by sea has been curtailed since the EU signed a deal with Ankara last year to halt the flow of migrants in exchange for $3.5bn aid to assist Turkey’s hosting of refugees.
Turkey’s neighbour Greece also agreed under the deal to detain all refugees arriving on its Aegean islands in the hope of deterring others.
Yet concerns have been raised in Bucharast that the Black Sea route could emerge as an alternative passage for migrants, as opposed to the traditional but treacherous Mediterranean route.
Romanian police have already reported a five-fold increase in migrants attempting to cross the border illegally since 2016.
Over 111,000 migrants have reached Europe by sea so far this year, mostly crossing from Libya to Italy, according to recent statistics. Proving a risky route, over 2,300 have died attemping to sail across.
NGO rescue ships were banned from patrolling Libyan waters where hundreds of thousands of people have been rescued in recent years and taken to Italy.
The article was originally published by Middle East Eye. To read the article there, click here.
One Syrian died, one injured in fight around Konya
Via Hürriyet – In a rural district of Konya -Karapınar – one Syrian died and one was severely injured in an armed fight between Syrians and locals. Around 00:30 at night, three Turkish nationals, attacked two Syrian men sitting on the street, who according to the attackers had previously harrassed the sister of one of them. One of the attackers went home, took his hunting rifle and opened the fire on the two Syrians. With injuries in various parts of their bodies, they were taking to a hospital but for one of them all help came to late. He passed away.
Continue reading One Syrian died, one injured in fight around Konya
Turkish Coast Guard attacked refugee boat in Aegean
Sea Watch and the Hope Project Lesvos document another violent pushback case in the Aegean. This time carried out by the Turkish Coast Guards:
https://www.facebook.com/seawatchprojekt/videos/1913840762167329/
Continue reading Turkish Coast Guard attacked refugee boat in Aegean
Concerns peak amid spike in migrant arrivals
Via Ekathimerini – A sudden spike in the number of undocumented migrants arriving from neighboring Turkey has led to concern on the part of Greek authorities, who expect the next few days to reveal whether the rapid increase is a random occurence or the beginning of a new trend. Continue reading Concerns peak amid spike in migrant arrivals
More than 630 migrants arrive on Greek islands since Friday
Via Ekathimerini – A total of 633 migrants and refugees have landed on Greece’s Aegean islands in the past three days, authorities said Monday.
Officials reported 256 arrivals on Chios, and 230 on Samos and 147 on Lesvos.
More than 12,000 migrants have crossed from Turkey to Greece this year, according to the IOM, a considerable drop in numbers compared to some 161,000 arrivals during the same period a year before.
Turkish political refugees flock to Germany, seeking safety
Via abc-NEWS – Find the whole article here.
[…] Germany has become the top destination for political refugees from Turkey since the failed July 15, 2016 coup. Some 5,742 Turkish citizens applied for asylum here last year, more than three times as many as the year before, according to the Interior Ministry. Another 3,000 Turks have requested protection in Germany this year.
Continue reading Turkish political refugees flock to Germany, seeking safety
“Send to their death” – on deportations under the EU-Turkey Deal
Short film on deportations under the EU-Turkey Deal by Joinda Productions, a film collective of three brothers from Afghanistan who arrived in Greece a year ago from Turkey in a rubber dinghy!
In Afghanistan, the three brothers had been prosecuted for their artistic work: making political films. Trapped on the Greek island Lesvos in the barbed wired camp Moria for a year, the three Afghan television artists continue their political work. Continue reading “Send to their death” – on deportations under the EU-Turkey Deal
Building Markets Report Highlights ‘Another Side to the Story’ on Syrian SMEs in Turkey
Via cidpnsi – The devastating scale of the humanitarian crisis in Syria has internally displaced more than six million people and forced five million more to flee across the border into neighbouring countries. The experiences of these refugees have often been reduced to a single narrative where newcomers are seen as burdens on their host communities. However, a closer look at the capabilities and contributions of Syrian-owned SMEs operating in Turkey reveals ‘another side to the story’. Continue reading Building Markets Report Highlights ‘Another Side to the Story’ on Syrian SMEs in Turkey
Pushback from Greece to Turkey documented on camera
The Greek newspaper Ef.Syn published an article on a pushback from Greece to Turkey based on information by the Watch the Med Alarm:
In this video, taken by refugees trying to reach the Greek islands by boat on the 21st July, we see a boat with a Greek flag creating waves by circling around them. The refugees are desperately calling the organization for documentation and surveillance of dangerous incidents in the Mediterranean Sea, Watch the Med, to inform them that a pushback-operation back to Turkey is in progress.
Continue reading Pushback from Greece to Turkey documented on camera