Via Bianet – A border wall similar to the “security wall” build on the Syrian border is being built on the Iranian border. The wall will be built by Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) between Ağrı and Iğdır provinces within a protocol between the Ministry of National Security and TOKİ.
Continue reading 144 Km Long Wall to Be Built on Iranian Border
Via New York Times – A Turkish media report says Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the country’s frontier with Iran, mimicking the Turkish barrier along the Syrian border. Continue reading Turkey Begins Building Border Wall With Iran
Daily Sabah reports that the Turkish Land Forces intercepted 975 people who tried to cross into Turkey on Monday: “The Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement that 926 people from Syria, 28 from Bulgaria, 18 from Greece and three people from Iraq, as well as 50 people trying to enter Syria from Turkish land, were captured.” Continue reading 975 people intercepted trying to illegally enter Turkey
Via Turkish Minute – Seventeen Turkish nationals who entered Greece illegally through the island of Rhodes have asked for asylum, saying their lives are in danger in Turkey, the gerçekgündem news website reported on Wednesday. Continue reading 17 Turkish nationals ask for asylum in Greece, say their lives in danger
The EU claims refugee flows from Turkey to Greece have slowed, so it is cutting funding to aid agencies and paying the Greek government to take over services there instead.
Via AlJazeera – It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the media switches off. Only last year, journalists were winning awards for watching refugees drown. Last week, seven people died just off the Turkish coast and it hardly got a mention. Continue reading Refugee aid dries up in Greece as media interest wanes
MSF published a report on the psychological and physiological health conditions of asylum seekers in Lesvos:
“Our medical teams treating asylum seeking men, women and children in Lesbos wish to ring the alarm bell as to the further deterioration of the care and protection afforded to vulnerable people. In Lesbos, as in much of Greece, vulnerable people’s health and well-being are being put at risk by a grossly deficient vulnerability screening system and policies aimed at returning as many people as possible to Turkey.”
The organization Sea-Watch, who were one of the first humanitarian NGO’s to start rescue operations in front of the Libyan coast and have been active in the Aegean sea with rescue assets too, now started a new monitoring project in the Aegean. See more in the video
Via Middle Eastern Eye – The Turkish army has arrested a group of soldiers who were filmed beating and verbally abusing a group of young Syrian refugees who attempted to illegally cross the border, it said late on Sunday. In a statement posted on its website, the army said that “the personnel in question were taken into custody and all administrative and judicial procedures have been immediately started against them”. Continue reading Turkey arrests troops who beat Syrian refugees on video
Via Legal Center Lesvos – On Tuesday 18th July 2017, 35 refugees in Moria camp, Lesvos, were arrested. For the second day in a row, protesters sat outside the European Asylum Support Office inside the camp, holding banners denouncing dehumanising conditions, and calling for freedom of movement for those kept on the island for over 6 months. Following this peaceful exercise of the right to protest, there were clashes between a handful of protesters and Greek riot police. Police forces then carried out raids of Isoboxes, and made 35 arrests. Continue reading FREE THE MORIA35
No Border Kitchen Lesvos on the recent escalation of violence in Lesvos:
The assaults – bravely captured on camera by refugee activists inside Moria – clearly depict the way the EU is abusing these vulnerable individuals. Following protests against the lack of action on the cases of refugees from certain countries, riot police forced the demonstrators inside the camp and closed the gates.