Refugee

In honor of World Refugee Day, the open-air Vox cinema in Exarchia will be hosting a free-entry screening of the multi-award-winning film "Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea," directed by Marcel Barrena. The drama is based on a true story of the harsh reality of the refugee life. The film is in Greek, English and Spanish, with Greek subtitles. 

Sadness, anger, disgust. The statements from European agencies and officials reacting to the deadly wreck off the coast of the southwestern Peloponnese, which is believed to have cost the lives of hundreds of people - will we ever know exactly how many?

If tens of dead and hundreds of missing people off the Greek coast do not unite us even briefly, if we cannot hold a serious discussion on all the dimensions of mass migration, then we are in danger of losing all hope of agreement among ourselves.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) issued a joint statement on Friday calling for "urgent and decisive action to prevent further deaths at sea following the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean, the worst in several years," the organizations pointed out.

Insecurity, poor infrastructure and isolation are taking a toll on the will to learn of youngsters at refugee camps, according to educators. 

Unwilling to cut ties with Russia, Serbia has nonetheless welcomed thousands of Ukrainian refugees. Few, however, feel very comfortable or plan to stay.

Refugees are being sought to fill job vacancies in the tourism and agriculture sectors, the head of the employment service of a leading NGO has said.

Speaking at a job fair in Thessaloniki organized to connect refugees and employers, sociologist Mary Asvesta of Solidarity Now said refugees often take on hard and difficult jobs.

Besides such abuses, experts also say the procedure could be illegal. "There are some doubts over the legality of what we are seeing happening between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of European law," Italian jurist and migration expert Gianfranco Schiavone told BIRN.

Not allowed to seek asylum

Romanians hosting Ukrainian refugees say they did not receive any promised financial subsidies from the government in the last two months, in January and February.

According to official statistics, around 73,000 Ukrainian refugees are currently sheltering in Romania following the Russian invasion of Ukraine starting on February 24, 2022.

Most unaccompanied refugee children are left outside the asylum system, according to 15 organizations that make up the Child Rights Advocacy Network, which issued a statement saying a draft bill on migration "creates more difficulties than it solves."