Human Rights Watch

Sejdiu was not in Qirez/Cirez that day as he was visiting a relative, but when he tried to return, he soon found out that the village was packed with Serbian forces.

"I was told by dozens of local residents that in Likoshan and Qirez, a battle was unfolding and I heard voices telling me to stop going forward," he recalled.

Lead pollution tests at a temporary migrant camp built on a former army firing range on the island of Lesvos showed no threat to safety, Greece's migration minister said on Thursday, after concerns over toxic waste were raised by rights groups.

Greek authorities should release test results and other vital information about lead contamination at the Kara Tepe migrant camp on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos to protect the health of residents and workers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.

Human and minority rights, the rule of law and media freedom remain endangered in several Southeast and Central European countries in 2020, especially in the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch, HRW, said in its latest report published on Wednesday.

The report looks at over 60 countries, among them Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Hungary and Poland.

Supporter of Selahattin Demirtas holding a picture of of Demirtas at an election campaign office in Istanbul, June 17 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

The European rights court said his detention for more than four years has sent a "dangerous message" to Turkish people and was "merely a cover for an ulterior political purpose".

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday urged Greek authorities to release 276 unaccompanied migrant children detained in police cells and detention centers across the country, saying the move was all the more urgent due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on May 14 to direct President Donald Trump to sanction officials in China over the country's treatment of the Uyghur community in its northwestern region of Xinjiang.  

Portugal is to take up to 60 unaccompanied children from Greek refugee camps, according to Socialist Party lawmaker Isabel Santos, as concern mounts over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the vulnerable group.

Albin Kurti said on Saturday that he has dismissed Shkelzen Gashi, a history and politics expert, as his prime ministerial adviser amid an ongoing backlash about Gashi's comments about crimes committed by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters.

Greece's health and migration ministers were meeting Wednesday to discuss protective measures to keep the novel coronavirus from spreading in the country's migrant camps.

The meeting between Vassilis Kikilas and Notis Mitarakis at the Health Ministry was being attended by the government's chief scientific adviser on the coronavirus, Sotiris Tsiodras, and other officials.