Via Keep Talking Greece – A 16-year-old Syrian asylum seeker is hospitalized in the hospital of Mytiline with injuries in the head and the feet. The teenager was shot by a local farmer of the Moria village around 6 o’ clock Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading Farmer shoots and injures 16-year-old Syrian asylum seeker in Moria
Via TurkeyPurge – At least 8 people were detained in two cities while they were reportedly on their way to escape Turkey’s post-coup crackdown to Greece. Continue reading Yet another 8 detained while fleeing Turkey to Greece
Refugee Info Bus حافلة المعلومات للاجئين مسیر راهنمای پناهندگان recently published a video concerning pushbacks from Greece to Turkey and how to act when confronted with a possible pushback.
Watch the video here.
Via Refugee Support Aegean – On 16 March 2018, a refugee boat sank near the Greek island of Agathonisi. Sixteen persons perished and at least three are missing. The survivors and relatives’ testimonies along with text messages sent to the Greek coastguard point towards a significant delay from the side of the Greek authorities in launching a search and rescue operation.
>From the early days of the tragedy, Refugee Support Aegean provides legal and psychological support to the shipwreck survivors and relatives of those who lost their lives. In this detailed case file, you can see how this tragedy unfolded.
Via Turkish Minute (from 29th June) – Officials from the Esenyurt Municipality in İstanbul on Friday removed signs in Arabic from district shops, in a neighborhood densely populated by Syrian refugees, in line with a recently adopted Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) rule that says the Turkish language should be a priority in signs.
The TSE announced in March that if shopkeepers want to use foreign languages, the type size of those words should be a quarter of the size of Turkish type.
Continue reading Arabic signs removed in İstanbul district densely populated by Syrian refugees
Via Greek Reporter – Ankara has officially requested the extradition of the eight Turkish soldiers in the process of being granted asylum in Greece in exchange of a “fair trial” of the two Greek junior army officers detained in Turkey.
Greek newspaper Ta Nea has published a letter sent to President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani by the President of the Turkish Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Ahmet Berat Conkar.
Continue reading Ankara Officially Requests Exchange of Turkish Asylum Seekers for Greek Soldiers
Via Relief Web – Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, almost half of whom are women and girls.
This rapid review looks at available evidence on how Syrian refugee women, girls, and people with disabilities have been affected by the response to the refugee crisis by a variety of actors, including the host government, international actors, and host communities. Refugees in Turkey face a number of challenges, with female refugees and refugees with disabilities facing additional gender and disability specific barriers. Poverty is a major issue for refugees, with nearly 67% living below the poverty line.
Continue reading Syrian refugee women, girls, and people with disabilities in Turkey
Via Greek Reporter – A total of 17,771 migrants and refugees are in reception and registration centers as well as other structures on the five Greek islands that host asylum seekers, new data show.
The new figures released by the Ministry of the Interior show that Lesvos is the island that is dealing with the majority of the migrant inflow, with 9,472 refugees and migrants in various places.
Continue reading Number of Migrants, Refugees Trapped on Greek Islands Reaches New High
In mid-April, after a court decision, the news that the restriction of movement to the mainland for all migrants arriving on the Greek islands from then on had been lifted made the headlines. Hopes were high of these developments among refugees and their supporters. However, the Greek government quickly issued an administrative decision only a couple of days later, reinstating the former policy, known as the “containment policy” that is responsible for the terrible conditions many migrants face.
Meanwhile, in the four-day trial against the #Moria35 in April, 32 of the 35 defendants were collectively convicted of injuring police officers. The process was politically motivated from the very beginning with almost no proof against the defendants. They were collectively convicted to a 26 months suspended prison sentence, though this penalty is temporarily suspended, since their lawyers lodged an appeal against the decision. V. H., who contributes to HarekAct, drawing on her insights on the situation of refugees on Lesvos and focusing on their detention and deportations, wrote a report about the trial, that we published on HarekAct (in German). Continue reading HarekAct Newsletter V – April, May, and June 2018
Lesvos solidarity – Pikpa published a call for solidarity:
The North Aegean regional governor announced the closure of Pikpa camp on the basis of a report by the health inspection which found shortcomings in the common kitchen handled by the residents, a broken net in the food distribution area and a leakage to a water tank for washing machines. For these reasons, it considers Pikpa dangerous to public health and the environment. Continue reading REACTION TO ANNOUNCEMENT TO CLOSE PIKPA CAMP