Tuesday 15.4.14 in Kos arrived 7 refugees while one man was shot. The police claims he was the smuggler.
Tuesday 15.4.14 in Chios 18 refugees arrived
Tuesday 15.4.14 in Mitilini 15 refugees arrived in a wooden boat, one 22 year old person was arrested being accused of “human smuggling”
Monday 14.4.14 in Kalimnos 8 refugees arrived
Monday 14.4.14 in Kos 10 refugees arrived
Monday 14.4.14 in Mitilini 26 refugees arrived
Continue reading ‘New arrivals in Greece / 1-15. April 2014’
331 refugees (267 men, 24 women and 40 children) from Syria and Egypt were saved from a fisher boat which had gotten in distress earlier in the sea of Kythira. They were transferred to Crete. The fisher boat had called SOS in the night of Sunday 65 nautic miles northwest of Crete. Two cargo ships of foreign flags, one greek tanker one ship of the US-Marine, a boat of the Greek coast guard, a fregatte of the greek navy and a helicopter of the greek coast guard got to the spot immediately.
efimerida ton syndakton (in greek)
update 4.4.14:
Today the Syrian refugees were left to go while the people from Egypt were kept and will be brought to detention – among the latter are reportedly many unaccompanied minors.
The Greek Police in its most recent statistics on 2013 anounced that police and coast guard together from January to December of the same year had arrested 39.759 foreigners without papers instead of 73.976 in 2012. This is a decrease of 46,2%.
From January to November 2013 “only” 955 foreigners were arrested in Evros at the land border to Turkey for “illegal entry”. In 2012 the number outreached 30,000.
While there was an overall decrease in arrivals there was also a shift of migration routes from the land border to the Aegean sea. In Mytilene 3,539 persons were arrested from January to November 2013 compared to 1,101 in the year before. On Samos island 2,914 were arrested in 2013 compared to 884 in 2012. In total 10,481 persons were arrested in he Aegean for “illegal entry” compared to 2,960 in 2012.
The largest group among the 39,759 arrested in Greece in 2013 are ALbanians (14,366), followed by Syrians (7,665), Afghans (5,960), Pakistani (3,744) and Bangladeshi (1,398).
Furthermore, from August 2012 (start of operation Xenios Dias) to the end of 2013 34,808 persons (either through IOM “voluntarily” either in deportations carried out by the Greek police and sometimes in cooperation with Frontex). In 2013 26.186 persons were returned compared to 22.117 in 2012 – an increase of 18,4%.
In 2012 40 persons were returned to Greece based on Dublin procedures from other EU-countries.
Asylum Service
According to the president of the Service the Athens office takes 40 asylum applications per day while another 10-20 are taken in the other offices (Orestiada and Alexandroupoli / Evros, Rhodes and Mytilene / Aegean. Mobile units also work in Amigdaleza prison and in Thessaloniki. More offices are planned in Samos, Chios, Heraklion and Patras.). The backlog which is still proceeded by the Aliens Police in Petrou Ralli has been decreased to 27,000.
NGOs though criticise the long queues at Katechaki street, the malfunctioning of a proper procedure to filter vulnerable cases and the insufficiency of translation in all languages. More than hat, the Asylum Service seems to be supportive and thus cooperative with the Greek Police concerning the long detention of asylum applicants.
The Asylum Office states that asylum applications of detainees are proceeded within 43 days (compared to the aim of proceeded the other asylum cases in a period of 90 days).
Within 7 months the asylum service which started its work on June 7th, 2013 has proceeded 5.577 asylum applications from 77 countries.
The asylum recognition rate reaches from around zero for nationals from Albania and Georgia up to 99,1% for Syrians and 100% for Somalis. In average the first decision comes after 63 days.
In the first stance decision from June 7th 2013 to end of January 2014 11,6% received political asylum and 5,2% subsidiary. Most of them come from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Eritrea and Sudan. Compared to that in 2012 the overall recognition rate was 0,9%.
Currently 207 persons work for the Asylum Service.
In 2013 674 persons who had applied for family reunification under Dublin III were accepted to leave Greece.
He was in a boat with another 45 migrants, two of them women. They were arrested by the greek coast guard and transferred to Chios island. According to the news it remains unclear how one of them drowned.
Press releases
25 July 2013
Two boat tragedies leave migrants dead and missing off Europe’s shores
Separate boating incidents putting the lives of dozens of migrants at risk in the Aegean Sea today are a tragic reminder of the dangers faced by people seeking to reach Europe’s borders, Amnesty International said.
A search and rescue operation continues off the Turkish coastal city Bodrum, where a boat believed to have 13 migrants on board went missing early this morning.
Also today the Greek coastguard rescued 21 migrants who fell from a rubber boat carrying 46 people near the island of Chios. One of the migrants was unconscious when pulled out of the sea and was later pronounced dead.
“The sad truth is that we’re likely to see more tragic incidents like these as migrants and asylum-seekers flee economic hardship and conflict with the hopes of finding safety and a better life in Europe,” said Jezerca Tigani, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme. Continue reading ‘AI: Two boat tragedies leave migrants dead and missing off Europe’s shores’
Lesvos
28.06.: 21 (13 men, 2 women and 6 minors)
24.06: 42 (30 men, 7 women and 7 minors)
23.6: 33 (23 men, 3 women, 7 minors)
17.6.: 22 (18 men, 3 women, 1 minor)
Samos
28.06: 30
22.06: 38
21.6.: 43
19.6.: 44
17.6.: 48 (36 men, 8 women and 4 minors)
Farmakonisi
19.6.: 18
Yesterday, the police release more than 70 of the migrants and refugees who had recently arrived on the island and who were detained under inhuman conditions inside the port area for a few days. Some of them had been already transferred to different police stations on the island for further detention. The release was a consequence of further arrests on the island and overcrowded cells. Families from Afghanistan, Syria and men and women from Somalia took the ship to Athens.
Meanwhile another 44 refugees arrived yesterday on Samos island. The detention centre on Samos has a capacity of 300.
Lesvos: 10
hellenic coast guard
Agathonisi: 27 (17 men, 6 women and 4 minors)
Leros: 21 (18 men, 1 woman and 2 minors)
hellenic coast guard
Among the arrested are mainly Afghans, Syrians and Somalis – all classical refugee populations. (for arrests by nationalities nationwide see also statistics by the greek police in greek)
By the coast guard arrested migrants for illegal entry
not included are arrests by the police
Lesvos
June 6th: 75
June 5th: 30 (24 men, 03 women και 03 children from Syria and Afghanistan)
June 4th: 42 (among them families, women, a baby etc. from Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia)
May 19th: no numbers available
May 17th: 41 (37 men, 01 woman and 03 minors)
May 13th: no numbers available
May 11th: 19
May 7th: 31 (22 men, 06 women και 03 minors),
May 2nd: 13 (08 men and 05 women)
May 1st: 14
Continue reading ‘New arrivals on Lesvos and other Aegean islands in numbers’
