The National Harald – Another 270 migrants and refugees landed on the island of Lesbos last week despite a suspended European Union swap deal with Turkey.

Aljazeera – At least four refugees, including two children, drown while six others were rescued by the Greek coastguard.

YourMiddleEast – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his plan to give Syrian refugees Turkish citizenship in comments published Monday, arguing the country has ample space after a backlash against the suggestion

European Commission – The European Commission has today proposed to mobilise an additional €1.4 billion in support for refugees in Turkey, with a view of raising the total amount allocated under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey to €2 billion by the end of July.

Middle East Eye – The European Union announced on Thursday it has opened a new negotiating chapter with Turkey on its long-stalled bid for membership of the bloc, as part of its refugee and migrant deal with Ankara.

Turkey formally launched its membership bid in 2005 and since then the EU has opened 15 chapters out of the 35 required to join the bloc, although it has only completed one.

This Guardian report on the working conditions for Syrian refugees is from April 2016 but highlights why it is almost impossible for Syrians to get a legal working permit. The new law on working permissions for Syrians enacted in January, does not offer refugees route to legal labour market as it requires employers to offer contracts and pay minimum wage. But this is an unattractive proposition for many employers, since they often employ Syrians precisely because they are easily exploited. As a result, many have to work in clandestine conditions making them vulnerable to any kind of exploitation.

Watch the Med Alarm Phone – A Joint Statement and Case Study by Sea-Watch, ProActiva Open Arms, WatchTheMed Alarm Phone, Human Rights at Sea and CADUS on how the Turkish Coast Guard denied support for a co-ordinated Humanitarian Search and Rescue operation. They demand an independent investigation of a fatal
 distress case that occurred on 19.03.2016 in the Aegean Sea

 in which two people lost they lives.

Hurriyet Daily News – The Foreign Ministry on June 19 denied claims that Turkish security forces killed a group of Syrian civilians attempting to cross the border into Turkey. In a statement, ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said the allegations “do not reflect the truth.”
“Our security forces are acting within a completely legal framework while intervening in border incidents and illegal crossing attempts,” Bilgic added.

BBC – Turkish border guards have shot dead at least eight Syrians, including four children, who were trying to cross into Turkey, activists say.

A further eight people were injured, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

Reuters – Greece wants to dramatically escalate returns of migrants to Turkey in the coming weeks under a European Union deal with Ankara, the migration minister said on Friday, amid criticism it has been too slow to process them.

Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said Greece wanted to send thousands of migrants who arrived by crossing the Aegean Sea back to Turkey within weeks if they did not qualify for asylum in Greece. “It would constitute failure if, within the next month-and-a-half, those who are obliged to leave the islands didn’t do so,” Mouzalas told Greek TV. Asked how many people that amounted to, Mouzalas said “more than half” of the migrants currently there.