Right of asylum

As record numbers of Syrian refugees reach the shores of Cyprus, the Nicosia government wants the European Union to consider declaring parts of their war-torn homeland safe to repatriate them to, the Cypriot interior minister said.

"Starting a discussion to re-evaluate the issue of Syria is crucial for us," Minister Constantinos Ioannou told Reuters in an interview.

A resident of flood-hit central Greece prepares to take up quarters at a refugee camp in Koutsochero, some 20 kilometers from the city of Larissa, on Monday, as a new storm swept into Greece.

The number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece by sea has more than doubled in 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to updated data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was "extremely concerned" over the return of more than 100 Syrian nationals from Cyprus to Lebanon without being screened to determine whether they need legal protection and who may be deported back to their war-wracked homeland.

Is the trauma of displacement enduring? What is its impact - on the economy, on electoral behavior, on art - even decades later? How is a society affected when it suddenly needs to take in a large number of refugees?

Of the more than one million Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Germany to escape the war, 44% would like to stay in the country long-term, according to a survey published on Wednesday and cited by Reuters.

There was a 39 percent increase in Ukrainian refugees who said they planned to stay in a previous survey released in late summer 2022.

The large number of refugees from Ukraine who fled the war with Russia contributed to the increase in Germany's population by 1.3% last year, bringing the number of citizens in the EU's most populous country to 84.4 million people, the Associated Press reported.

The National Palace of Culture (NDK), in Sofia will be lit in the colour blue on the evening of 20 June to mark World Refugee Day. The initiative is part of UNHCR's, the UN Refugee Agency, marking of the international day to honour people who have been forced to flee.

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.

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