Brave steps are needed on the part of European Union member-states to overcome deep-seated differences over the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, according to Roberta Metsola, the newly elected president of the European Parliament.
MIGRATION
![Migrants walk towards the Bosnia-Croatia border in attempt to cross it what they call “the game,” near Velika Kladusa, Sept. 29, 2020 [Reuters/Marko Djurica].](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3FGVE7TGOZNGTDWCGE4KGIXS5Y1-320x200.jpg)
The municipal council of Orestiada in northeastern Greece is convening Tuesday to discuss controversial plans by the government to expand a migrant reception and identification center on the outskirts of the border village of Fylakio.
![Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri attend migration conference in Vilnius, Lithuania January 21, 2022. [Janis Laizans/Reuters]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Fabrice_Leggeri_frontex_reuters-320x200.jpg)
The European Union needs clearer rules on balancing respect for human rights with the need for border protection, the chief of the EU’s Frontex border and coastguard agency said on Friday.
![A cargo ship carries migrants during a rescue operation, as it sails off the island of Crete, Greece, October 29, 2021. [Hellenic Coast Guard/Handout via Reuters]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/migrants_cargo_ship_HCG-320x200.jpg)
European police have dismantled a criminal network that made hundreds of millions of euros smuggling migrants from Turkey to Italy mainly on yachts, Greek police said.
![Iraqi suspects Alaa Qasim Rahima, second left and Omar Qasim Rahima, second right, conceal thier faces after their arrest by Italian Finance Police, at the Venice barrack, northern Italy, on Wednesday. [Luca Bruno/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/migrants-arrest-italy-AP-320x200.jpg)
Police in Italy, Albania and Greece on Wednesday arrested some 30 people accused of profiteering several hundred million euros to smuggle refugees and migrants into the European Union from Turkey on yachts and other leisure vessels.
![In this file photo from 2020, Greek police detain a migrant near Orestiada town, Evros region, at the Greek-Turkish border. [AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/police_migrants_AP-320x200.jpg)
A new police program to scan people’s faces and fingerprints violates international human rights standards on privacy and is likely to accentuate existing discrimination, Human Rights Watch and Homo Digitalis warned on Tuesday.
![[AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/vathy_migrant_camp_samos_ap-320x200.jpg)
Athens and Harvard universities will launch a research collaboration on migration/refugee issues this summer with a three-week summer course in Greece for Harvard graduate students.
![Conservative party Les Republicains candidate for the French presidential election 2022, Valerie Pecresse, center, answers questions to journalists outside the ancient Herodes Atticus theater in Athens on Jan. 14, 2022. [Petros Giannakouris/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Valerie-Pecresse-AP-320x200.jpg)
French presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse stressed the need for strong European borders Friday, during a visit to Greece that will also see her visit a camp for asylum seekers on an Aegean island used by migrants to enter Europe from neighboring Turkey.
![[Reuters]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/erdogan_reuters_web-1-320x200.jpg)
President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday told ambassadors from the European Union that the bloc had not provided meaningful support in battling migration and that it had not reciprocated Turkey’s efforts to improve relations.
Greek authorities have found the body of a woman believed to be the wife of an Iranian who drowned crossing a rain-swollen torrent, as the couple and several other migrants trekked through the hills of northern Greece to avoid police patrols.
![[Intime News]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/EMAK_intime-320x200.jpg)
A woman who went missing in a mountainous area in Serres regional unit, northern Greece, on Wednesday while trying to cross a swollen torrent amid rainstorms along with a group of migrants was found dead on Thursday.
One man was swept away and drowned and a woman was missing after a group of migrants trekking through the hills of northern Greece to avoid police patrols crossed a swollen torrent amid rainstorms Wednesday, authorities said.
![[InTime News]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2316210-320x200.jpg)
Scattered in every Greek city are the remnants of buildings used to house refugees following the Asia Minor Campaign and the subsequent population exchange in 1923.
![[INTIME]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Accident-320x200.png)
The body of a young child was recovered from the Aegean Sea on Saturday, two weeks after two deadly accidents in the area involving boats loaded with migrants, Greek Coast Guard officials said.
A growing number of residents on the eastern Aegean island of Chios are opposing the planned creation of a closed camp for migrants.
![[AMNA/Archive Photo]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Boat-320x200.png)
Fifteen days after a boat full of migrants capsized south of the Aegean Sea island of Folegandros, four badly decomposed bodies were recovered Thursday.
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