The European Parliament narrowly approved the extensive reform of the European Union’s migration and asylum policy on Wednesday.
MIGRATION
Lawmakers are to vote later Wednesday on a major revamp of the European Union’s migration laws, aiming to end years of division over how to manage the entry of thousands of people without authorization and deprive the far-right of a vote-winning campaign issue ahead of June elections.
Greece has recovered the bodies of three minors and rescued 19 migrants after their dinghy hit rocks at the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea near Turkey, the coastguard said on Wednesday.
Greece rescued 14 migrants including eight children from a rocky shore on the island of Chios, the coastguard said on Wednesday, adding that search-and-rescue operations were ongoing.
Migration is top of the agenda this week in Cyprus, with President Nikos Christodoulides calling for the EU to step in to help Cyprus deal with a surge in arrivals on its shores.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides will discuss with the head of the European Commission on Sunday an unprecedented surge in arrivals of mainly Syrian refugees this week on the island and he will then visit Lebanon on Monday, officials said.
Nine Egyptian men who were on board a migrant boat that sank off Greece last year, killing hundreds of people, are to face trial next month, accused of people smuggling, judicial sources said on Friday.
Greece’s Coast Guard said on Thursday it had rescued 37 migrants from a vessel off the southern coast of Crete.
The Personal Data Protection Authority has imposed a 175,000-euro fine on the Migration and Asylum Ministry for the development and installation of the Hyperion and Centaur biometric control and surveillance systems at the reception centers for asylum seekers on islands of the Aegean.
Cyprus appealed on Wednesday for vigorous action from the EU to stem a recent tide of mostly Syrian refugees arriving by sea via Lebanon, saying the island’s reception capacity was at breaking point.
A further 29 migrants have been rescued off the coast of Gavdos, south of Crete. The boat carrying the migrants was spotted at noon, some 23.5 nautical miles south of the island.
Eight people have died in southern Albania when a car carrying suspected migrants swerved off a mountain road into a ravine, police said.
Shortly before Monday’s visit by Migration and Asylum Minister Dimitris Kairidis to Gavdos, south of Crete, 74 people were found on a boat that was at risk 10 nautical miles southeast of the island and rescued by the coast guard.
Dozens of migrants found in a wooden boat on the Mediterranean Sea between northern Africa and southern Europe have been transported to the Greek island of Crete, Greece’s coast guard said Monday.
Seventy-four undocumented migrants aboard a stranded vessel were rescued by a coast guard patrol vessel 10 nautical miles southeast of the island of Gavdos on Monday.
A coast guard patrol intercepted a speedboat carrying 22 migrants heading towards Greek shores in the southeastern maritime area of Chios island late Saturday.
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