Image credit: Georgios Giannopoulos
Nearly 45,600 migrants have arrived by sea so far this year, according to UN data. The Mediterranean countries have again become the gateway into Europe for those fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Germany’s interior minister Horst Seehofer told reporters in Luxembourg.
Europe needs an asylum policy
‘If there is no common European asylum policy, there is a danger that uncontrolled immigration will once again take place, throughout Europe,’ ‘We have seen this before and I do not want it to happen again.’
Germany warns of repeat of 2015 European migration crisis as Greece and Cyprus sound the alarm over resurgence of arrivals from Turkey with a ‘lifejacket graveyard’ growing in Lesbos.
Europe could face a repeat of the chaotic influx of migrants that caught the continent off guard four years ago, Greece and Cyprus have both sounded alarms over a resurgence of arrivals from neighboring Turkey – as European Union ministers meet to discuss the issue.
Thousands of life preservers are dumped on open ground in an area that has been dubbed The Life Jacket Graveyard by those who live nearby.
Greece relocating from Islands to the mainland
Greek Authorities have started relocating refugees from the overcrowded Moria Camp on the island to facilities on the mainland as the flow of migration continues.
In 2015 EU states couldn’t come to an agreement when immigration strained social and security services. Far right parties use it as fuel for their anti immigration viewpoints.
This summer, in August alone, Greece saw the highest monthly arrival numbers since the 2016 EU-Turkey deal that reduced sea crossings there, according to a document prepared by Finland, which currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.
Turkey complained that the EU support promised in exchange for taking the burden on migration to Europe is not enough for the 3.5 million Syrian refugees they host. The pressure on overcrowded refugee camps on Greece’s Aegean islands is rising once again.
‘The situation of children in the Moria camp is particularly worrying,’ Charity group Oxfam said in a statement, stressing that many of those under-age were on their own. According to Oxfam reports 13,000 men, women and children are crammed into the Moria camp on Lesbos, but it was designed to accommodate 3,100 people.
