A major anniversary like the one Greece is celebrating this year is an opportunity to ponder the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
MIGRATION
Ten people in a suspected migrant smuggling vehicle were injured in a crash in Edessa, northern Greece, in the early hours of Friday, the Athens-Macedonia News Agency has said.
A national mechanism for the detection and protection of unaccompanied children who are on the road or living in precarious conditions will be launched in the coming days.
The Municipal Council of Mytilene, on the northern Aegean island of Lesvos, will Wednesday convene to seal a previous decision for the creation of a new facility for asylum seekers in the remote location of Vastria.
![[File photo]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/lesvos-relocation-320x200.jpg)
As Greek authorities continue efforts to ease pressure on overcrowded migrant camps on the Aegean islands, 115 refugees whose have been granted asylum were due to leave Lesvos on Tuesday for the mainland.
![EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson speaks at a press conference with Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis (not pictured) in Athens last Tuesday, after a tour of the migrant facilities on the Aegean islands of Lesvos and Samos. Johansson praised Greece’s Asylum Service for ‘much swifter but also good processes of examining asylum applications over the past year.’ [Yiannis Liakos/InTime News]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/johansson_athens_2021_-_intime-320x200.jpg)
Ankara must fulfill its commitments under the 2016 migration agreement with the European Union, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson stressed in an exclusive interview with Kathimerini on Sunday.
![In this photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard and taken from a vessel shows a dinghy with migrants, left, with Turkish ships in the background, in the narrow stretch of water between the eastern Greek island of Lesvos and the Turkish coast on Friday. [Hellenic Coast Guard via AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/hellenic_coastguard-320x200.jpg)
Greece is reporting a series of incidents with Turkey’s coast guard in the narrow stretch of water between the eastern Greek island of Lesvos and the Turkish coast, at a time of generally testy relations between the two neighbors and NATO allies.
Turkish patrol boats on Friday morning harassed Greek coast guard vessels while several boats carrying undocumented migrants were trying to enter Greece, authorities said.
![European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, left, speaks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during their meeting in Athens, on Tuesday, March 30. [Petros Giannakouris/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/johansson-mitsotakis-ap-320x200.jpg)
The European Union’s home affairs commissioner was meeting Tuesday with Greece’s prime minister and foreign minister, a day after touring two of the eastern islands in the Aegean Sea most heavily affected by migration into Europe.
Ylva Johansson, the EU home affairs commissioner, visited Lesvos and Samos on Monday to announce that the EU would provide €250m of funding for five new refugee and migrant camps on Greece’s Aegean islands. Katy Fallon joins The Greek Current with a report from Lesvos.
![Refugees and migrants stand next to a tent in the Mavrovouni camp on the Greek island of Lesvos, on Monday. [Reuters]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/lesvos_camp_-_reuters-320x200.jpg)
The European Union’s home affairs commissioner on Monday stressed the need for solidarity among the bloc’s member states in tackling migration and called on Turkey to resume accepting the return of people whose asylum applications are rejected in Greece after arriving from Turkish territory.
![[InTime News]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Ylva-320x200.jpg)
EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson on Monday acknowledged that “there are limits to people’s patience and these have been exceeded” on the Aegean islands on the frontline of the migration crisis.
![EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson, left, listens to an asylum seeker at a refugee camp in the port of Vathy on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, Greece, Monday, March 29, 2021. [Michael Svarnias/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Johnsson_Samos_AP-320x200.jpg)
The European Union’s home affairs commissioner is visiting asylum-seeker facilities on the eastern Greek islands of Samos and Lesvos on Monday, where they were scheduled to hold meetings with local officials.
![[Intime news]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/migrant_camp_Diavata_intime-320x200.jpg)
Two men were injured during a fight that started in the migrant camp of Diavata, near Thessaloniki, shortly after midnight on Monday.
Migrants and refugees in Greece’s camps will start being vaccinated in May, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said in an interview with state-run news agency ANA on Sunday, adding that “he sees no reason” to do it earlier.
EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, is expected to visit the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos and Samos on Monday to assess the progress made by Greek authorities in building the new, permanent facilities that will house arriving migrants.
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