United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The Migration Ministry said Friday that it had "no knowledge" of a report by an international organization castigating its policy on and handling of migration, responding to a news story published in Kathimerini, though it failed to respond to the issues raised in the document.

Greece's Migration Ministry said on Friday it had "no knowledge" of a report by an international organization castigating its policy on and handling of migration, responding to a news story published in Kathimerini.

It said the same applied to the UΝ refugee agency (UNHCR), and the International Organisation for migration (IOM).

About 11,000 recognised refugees are facing an uncertain future as they will gradually have to leave their current accommodation facilities starting in June, as part of the Migration Policy Ministry's plan to replace them with asylum seekers from the islands, in a bid to decongest the local camps.

Switzerland has agreed to take in 22 unaccompanied migrant children from Greece, it was announced Thursday following a telephone conversation between Alternate Minister of Migration and Asylum Giorgos Koumoutsakos and his Swiss counterpart Mario Gattiker.
Switzerland said it will also contribute 1.1 million Swiss francs to support Greece in managing the migrant/refugee crisis.

Twenty unaccompanied refugee minors were scheduled to leave the overcrowded camp of Moria on Lesvos island on Tuesday for mainland Greece, from where they will depart for Germany and relocation there on April 18.
In addition, another 20 asylum applicants are also leaving for Piraeus through a program of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to be housed in facilities on the mainland.

A facility belonging to a locally based non-governmental organization called Stand By Me Lesvos was destroyed in a fire in the early hours of Tuesday, local media on the eastern Aegean island have reported.

The European Commission will allocate € 700 million to Greece to tackle the flows of Syrian refugees seeking to enter Europe through Turkey. This was announced today by the chairman of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a joint press conference in Greece with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the head of the European Council and the President of the European Parliament, BTA reported.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Tuesday urged European Union countries to give more resources and support to Greece as it faces a new wave of migrants and refugees from Syria and other parts of the Middle East.

The United Nation's refugee agency said on Monday that Greece had no right to stop accepting asylum applications as Athens struggled with a sudden increase of arrivals at its border of Middle East refugees and migrants from Turkey.

Unknown assailants on Sunday set fire on a migrant camp at a makeshift reception area for asylum-seekers at Skala Sykamias on the northern coast of Lesvos island in the eastern Aegean.
The Stage 2 transit camp had been set up by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to temporarily host asylum seekers landing on the island, before their transfer to the Moria hotspot.