clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Greece islanders strike treatment of refugees 

January 22, 2020 at 3:47 pm

Refugees outside a camp in Greece on 19 September 2016 [Intimenews/Manolis Lagoutaris/via REUTERS]

Islanders from the Greek isles of Lesbos, Samos and Chios have gone on strike over the government’s handling of migrants using Turkey as a transit point to Europe, local daily Kathimerini reported yesterday.

Many locals were angered that Greek islands had been “turned into places of concentration and detention” for thousands of people around the world.

Yesterday, civil organisations from around the world wrote an open letter to Greek Minister on Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarakis calling on him to restore public health, inaccessible to thousands of asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and their children.

Yesterday, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu warned of the influx of Syrian refugees and disclosed that the international community should help Ankara meet the demands of the refugees.

On Saturday, at least 11 irregular migrants, including eight children, were killed when their boat sank off the coast of western Turkey.

Turkish authorities held some 60,000 people as they tried to cross the Mediterranean last year, while almost 9,000 suspected human traffickers were arrested, according to Anadolu.

READ: Turkish coastguard hits Syrian refugees