Category Archives: Greece

Storms in France, Greece and Italy leave ‘biblical destruction’

Posted on by

Seven people die as weekend of heavy rain brings landslides, floods and collapsed overpass

Seven people have died as violent storms swept through parts of France, Greece and Italy over the weekend, causing flash floods, landslides and the collapse of an overpass.

Greek media described the storms as leaving a trail of “biblical destruction” in some areas of the country while the overpass collapse in northern Italy brought back a chilling reminder of Genoa’s Morandi bridge giving way during a thunderstorm in August 2018, killing 43 people.

Continue reading...

Aid groups condemn Greece over ‘prison’ camps for migrants

Posted on by

Government’s announcement represents blatant disregard for human rights, says IRC

Greece is poised to create “prison” island camps, say aid groups amid growing criticism of government plans to overhaul refugee reception centres on Aegean outposts facing Turkey.

As the UN refugee agency’s top official, Filippo Grandi, prepared this week to fly to Lesbos, where almost 16,000 people are crammed into a single facility, Athens was criticised for adopting legislation in contravention of basic human rights.

Continue reading...

Greece to replace island refugee camps with ‘detention centres’

Posted on by

Government announces plans to relocate 20,000 people from islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos by early 2020

Greece has announced plans to close its three largest migrant camps and replace them with facilities on the mainland that campaigners have likened to detention centres.

People living in overcrowded camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos will be moved to closed complexes for identification, relocation and deportation with a capacity of at least 5,000 people each.

Continue reading...

Two men suspected of planning attacks on embassies in Athens arrested

Posted on by

DNA left by suspect who shot himself during robbery leads police to suspected guerrillas

Two suspected urban guerrillas allegedly linked to planned attacks on foreign embassies in Athens have been remanded in custody after a high profile anti-terror operation in the Greek capital.

The two men, both in their 40s, were jailed after appearing before a public magistrate charged with membership of the terror group, Revolutionary Self Defense, which has claimed credit for assaults on both the French and Mexican embassies. Under Greek law they can be detained for up to 18 months pending trial.

Continue reading...

Greece feeds economic recovery with tax law to lure investors

Posted on by

Mitsotakis government seeks foreign capital from new residents in prosperity drive

Not so long ago the idea of Greece announcing tax relief measures to entice the global rich would have been regarded as a joke. With the EU’s weakest economy, and a leftist government in power, the world’s wealthy were keen to keep their distance.

But in a marked departure of policy, the centre-right administration led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis has offered an array of incentives to attract the rich.

Continue reading...

‘She had one sweet left’: woman survives three days lost in Aegean

Posted on by

Officer Giorgios Marietakis describes sailor Kushila Stein’s rescue after she lost an oar

On a rescue mission, Capt Giorgos Marietakis only ever has one rule: to tune into his senses and envision the person he is out to save. On Sunday, he put himself into what he imagined would be the mindset of Kushila Stein, a 45-year-old New Zealand woman lost at sea for close to three days.

“I had an image of her being hungry and thirsty,” he said. “I tried to get into her head and think of what she would do. I imagined her beginning to despair and I thought of her doing whatever she could to survive.”

Continue reading...

British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods, says QC

Posted on by

Geoffrey Robertson says it should ‘wash its hands of blood and return Elgin’s loot’

The British Museum has been accused of exhibiting “pilfered cultural property”, by a leading human rights lawyer who is calling for European and US institutions to return treasures taken from “subjugated peoples” by “conquerors or colonial masters”.

Geoffrey Robertson QC said: “The trustees of the British Museum have become the world’s largest receivers of stolen property, and the great majority of their loot is not even on public display.”

Continue reading...

‘It’s totally appropriate’: Pompeo jokes about political pressure at Greek press conference – video

Posted on by

The US secretary of state was being asked if Balkan countries would be subjected to political pressure if they were unwilling to help Donald Trump. ‘You are going to be under enormous political pressure,’ he said, joking that the Greek foreign minister pressurised him all the time

Continue reading...

Riots follow deadly fire at Lesbos refugee camp – video

Posted on by

Refugees clashed with police on the Greek island of Lesbos after a deadly fire at a crowded migrant camp prompted riots and led to authorities using teargas to restore order. The blaze, which erupted at a container inside the Moria camp on Sunday, is thought to have killed at least two people, though the death toll remains unclear. The camp hosts about 13,000 people but has facilities for just 3,000

Continue reading...

Thomas Cook staff and European tourist trade left reeling after collapse

Posted on by
Former staff waiting for pay plan to take protests to Tory conference, and Greek hoteliers face a €500m hit

Staff from Thomas Cook are to hold protests at this week’s Tory party conference in Manchester and later at Downing Street over the government’s decision not to step in and save the company from liquidation.

Staff were due to get their monthly salaries on 30 September but are instead among Thomas Cook’s creditors, and it is now unclear when they will be paid. Some 150,000 UK holidaymakers are being repatriated at taxpayers’ expense following the demise of the world’s oldest tour operator. On 28 September, a further 16,700 customers were set to be flown home.

Continue reading...

Fallout from Thomas Cook collapse felt across Europe and Africa

Posted on by

Governments are in crisis-planning mode over efforts to repatriate 500,000 tourists

The collapse of Thomas Cook has plunged governments across Europe and Africa into crisis-planning mode as they help with the repatriation of more than 500,000 stranded tourists and begin to count the cost of the holiday company’s demise on already-battered economies.

About 50,000 holidaymakers are stranded in Greece, 21,000 in Turkey, 15,000 in Cyprus and 4,500 in Tunisia. Thousands of tourists are also stuck in the US and dozens of other countries. Most of the tourists are from the UK with an estimated 150,000 people, followed by Germany with about 140,000 holidaymakers.

Continue reading...

After murder, defections and poll defeat: the sun sets on Greece’s Golden Dawn

Posted on by

The neo-Nazi party’s Athens offices have downsized and it has closed offices across the country. Greeks embrace the end of an era of rage

For years the five-storey building at 131 Mesogeion Avenue embodied the success of Golden Dawn, the neo-Nazi party that took Greece, and Europe, by storm. Today, its tattered flag, broken signage and shuttered doors have come to tell another story: of Golden Dawn’s rise and fall on the back of rage and economic crisis, hate-mongering, murder and criminal charges. “The people put them in, the people threw them out,” quips Giorgos Mavroeidis, the manager of a health-appliance shop two stores down. “We got used to the rallies in the end but they were extremists to be sure,” he says of the black-clad staff and supporters who would frequent the building, the party’s national headquarters. “It’s strange to think of us being so close to them now.”

Related: 'Their ideas had no place here': how Crete kicked out Golden Dawn

Continue reading...

Home Office planning to end family reunion for children after Brexit

Posted on by

Exclusive: Current system for asylum-seeking minors set to end the day after UK leaves EU

The Home Office is preparing to end the current system of family reunification for asylum-seeking children if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the Guardian has learned.

The government has privately briefed the UN refugee agency UNHCR and other NGOs that open cases may be able to progress, but a no-deal Brexit would mean no new applications after 1 November from asylum-seeking children to be reunited with relatives living in the UK. Even if there is a deal, the future of family reunion is not certain.

Continue reading...

AfD candidate was at 2007 Greek neo-Nazi rally, says leaked report

Posted on by

Andreas Kalbitz is vying to become rightwing German party’s first state premier

A German olitician vying to become the first state premier for the rightwing populist Alternative für Deutschland in elections this Sunday took part in a neo-Nazi rally in Athens in 2007, documents leaked to the media show.

Andreas Kalbitz, 46, is the AfD’s lead candidate for Brandenburg, where polls suggest the party is competing with the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) in the race to become the state’s strongest political force.

Continue reading...

Athens police poised to evict refugees from squatted housing projects

Posted on by

A self-governing community in central Athens which has helped house refugees is threatened by a government crackdown

It’s just after 5am in the central Athens neighbourhood of Exarcheia. A group of Afghans and Iranians are sitting down together for breakfast in the middle of the street, with a banner that reads “No Pasaran” (“They shall not pass”) strung between the buildings above their heads. They laugh and joke as they help themselves to bread and cheese pies from the communal table.

The public breakfast is outside Notara 26, a self-organised refugee accommodation squat. Since opening in September 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis, it has provided shelter to over 9,000 people. These ‘‘Breakfasts of Resistance” – held in the early hours when police-led evictions are most likely – have become daily events since Greece’s New Democracy government assumed office in July.

Continue reading...

Greek NGO helping child refugees wins $2m humanitarian prize

Posted on by

Metadrasi provides translators, transport and helps find homes for unaccompanied minors

An NGO helping migrant and refugee children in Greece has won the world’s biggest annual humanitarian award.

Metadrasi received the $2m (£1.6m) Hilton humanitarian prize for its “innovative approach to welcoming refugees and protecting unaccompanied minors”, the Conrad N Hilton Foundation said.

Continue reading...

Greek police search for British woman missing on island of Ikaria

Posted on by

Dr Natalie Christopher, 34, thought to have disappeared after going for morning run

Greek authorities have broadened the search for a British scientist believed to have disappeared after she went for an early morning run on the Aegean island of Ikaria.

More than 24 hours after Dr Natalie Christopher was first reported missing, the quest to locate the 34-year-old intensified as officials in Athens dispatched a helicopter equipped with infrared cameras to join the search operation.

Continue reading...

Greece: 20-minute storm kills six tourists in Halkidiki – video report

Posted on by

Six people have been killed and dozens more injured in fierce storms in northern Greece. Strong winds and hail hit the popular Halkidiki region near the city of Thessaloniki late on Wednesday. Television footage showed overturned cars, fallen trees, torn roofs and mudslides. The freak storm lasted about 20 minutes, according to witnesses interviewed by the state broadcaster ERT

Continue reading...

Piece of skull found in Greece ‘is oldest human fossil outside Africa’

Posted on by

Remains discovered on Mani peninsula could rewrite history of Homo sapiens in Eurasia

A broken skull chiselled from a lump of rock in a cave in Greece is the oldest modern human fossil ever found outside Africa, researchers claim.

The partial skull was discovered in the Apidima cave on the Mani peninsula of the southern Peloponnese and has been dated to be at least 210,000 years old.

Continue reading...