International Organization for Migration

The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry is seeking ways to improve living conditions for thousands of refugee children staying in Greece without a parent or guardian as they wait to either be granted asylum or reunited with family in other parts of Europe.

Accommodation will be created for an additional 4,000 refugees on the Greek mainland by November, the head of the International Organization for Migration's mission in Greece, Gianluca Rocco, said on Wednesday, adding that the government's plan to speed up the processing of asylum applications and ease pressure on overcrowded facilities on the Aegean islands is in the right direction.

Accommodation will be created for an additional 4,000 refugees on the Greek mainland by November, the head of the International Organization for Migration's mission in Greece, Gianluca Rocco, said on Wednesday, adding that the government's plan to speed up the processing of asylum applications and ease pressure on overcrowded facilities on the Aegean islands is in the right direction.

An innovative project in Bihac, in north-west Bosnia, is bringing locals and migrants together around a shared love of music.

At least 70 migrants drowned yesterday when their ship sank into international waters off the coast of Tunisia, and 16 were rescued, Tunisia press agency AFP reported, quoted by Reuters.

The craft sunk 40 nautical miles from the coast of Spafas, south of the capital Tunisia. Survivors were rescued from fishing boats.

More than a year after the then minister of migration policy Yiannis Mouzalas and Education Minister Costas Gavroglou heralded a program to teach Greek to adult refugees, courses have yet to start.

The outlook for the funding of refugee accommodation programs in Greece is unclear even as arrivals from Turkey are expected to increase over the coming months. 

Undeterred by the freezing weather, migrants and refugees are still attempting to cross over from Bosnia and Herzegovina to EU-member Croatia.

According to the International Organization for Migration (OIM), 57,250 people managed to complete the journey to Spain across the Mediterranean between the beginning of the year and December 26. That is an average of nearly 160 arrivals a day, El Pais reported.

The International Organization for Migration last week announced it had offered shelter and tailored services to more than 1,114 unaccompanied minors in Greece since the beginning of 2018 as part of an European Union-funded program.