Amnesty: Refugees in Greece live in 'appalling conditions'Athens, 22 September 2016 (MIA) - Most of the roughly 60,000 refugees and other migrants stranded in Greece are living in "appalling conditions" and face "immense and avoidable suffering," rights group Amnesty International said in a report Thursday slamming Europe's response to the refugee crisis.
The group criticized Europe for failing to fulfil commitments to relocate refugees from the countries they entered, saying only 6 per cent — about 4,000 people — of the 66,400 relocations promised over two years have taken place, AP reported.
"Our latest research has found that two years into the refugee crisis in Greece, refugees and asylum-seekers in Greece are ... living in fear and uncertainty for the future," Giorgos Kosmopoulos, an Amnesty International researcher on refugees and migrants' rights, said. "The European Union, a bloc of 500 million people, cannot offer dignified conditions to a number of people that is relatively small."
Amnesty called on Greece to improve conditions and on European countries to speed up the relocation process, saying it would take 18 years at the current rate to fulfil their existing pledges.
After more than a million refugees and migrants reached European countries last year, the EU reached an agreement with Turkey in March to limit the flow.
Under the deal, people arriving on Greek islands from the Turkish coast face deportation back to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece.
The agreement, combined with Balkan border closures, has led to a dramatic fall in the number of people reaching Greece.
Government figures show 92 people arrived on Greek islands in a 24-hour period Wednesday and Thursday, compared to the thousands who were arriving each day at this time last year.
However, the border closures also have trapped tens of thousands of people in Greece. With asylum applications taking months to process, the rate of return to Turkey is low.
Other European countries, meanwhile, have failed to take in the numbers of refugees they had committed to accept. ba/18:18
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Slovenia fears a repeat of the migrant crisis
Ljubljana, 23 September 2016 (MIA) - Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar warned that there is danger of a repeat of the migrant crisis, that would affect unity between European countries and would pit Balkan countries against each other.
"A possible repeat of the mass migrant crisis with endanger the European Union. If EU countries don't act in a unified manner, it would put a question mark over the survival of the Union", Cerar said in a TV interview.
During the crisis the persisted throughout 2015 and in early 2016, Balkan countries were accusing each other over the flow of refugees migrants, and were actively trying to push them toward the neighboring country as soon as possible, while EU countries sent mixed signals on opening or closing the borders as nationalist politicians gained ground. Cerar said that, especially after the British referendum to leave the EU, it would be very hard to go through another such crisis.cc/08:55
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Kathimerini: Tensions building on Lesvos over migrants
Athens, 23 September 2016 (MIA) - Tensions were building on the Aegean island of Lesvos on Thursday, a day after an elderly man threatened refugees outside the Moria camp with a hunting rifle, as authorities continued with efforts to accommodate hundreds of migrants left homeless following Monday’s fire at the camp, Athens-based daily Kathimerini reads on Friday.
According to a police spokesperson, the 84-year-old was seen by police on Wednesday afternoon brandishing a rifle and shouting abuse outside the Moria camp, which was partially destroyed in a large fire started by frustrated migrants on Monday night. He was detained but not arrested due to his old age, the spokesperson said, adding that he faced charges of illegal weapons possession.
The Moria community leader, Nikos Trakellis, told Kathimerini that the situation was spiraling out of control. “Everything is chaotic. You cannot keep 3,000 people in a space designed for 800,” he said, referring to the refugee camp. He said things would get worse in winter. “They’ll be obliged to vandalize things just to keep warm and they’ll come into our homes looking for food,” he said.
In a related development, Amnesty International on Thursday released a damning report, saying that most of some 60,000 migrants stranded in Greece are living in “appalling conditions” and face “immense and avoidable suffering.” Amnesty called on Greece to improve conditions and on other European countries to speed up a lagging relocation process, saying it would take 18 years to meet existing targets at the current rate.
Meeting in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of a United Nations summit, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to work together to support the implementation of an agreement between Ankara and the European Union to curb human trafficking in the Aegean. sk/11:14
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Montenegrin mafia figure killed by sniper while exercising in prison
Kotor, 23 September 2016 (MIA) - Dalibor Gjuric, inmate at the prison in the Montenegrin city of Kotor sentenced as part of a high profile cocaine running gang, was killed by a sniper as he was exercising in the prison yard on Thursday afternoon.
The killer hid on a hill overlooking the Spuzh prison, and shot Gjuric who died in hospital where he was rushed for treatment. The bullet went through a wire fence and hit him in the chest. Gjuric had survived several earlier assassination attempts. Police found a burning Skoda vehicle with Italian license plates near the prison, and believes it was used by the mafia sniper.
It's believed that a dozen of mafia killings related to Kotor based gangs are related to a 2014 incident in which 200 kilograms of cocaine were stolen in Spain.
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