Aegean islands

A meeting between Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis and officials from the three Greek Aegean islands hosting the largest number of refugees and migrants concluded with an initiative to hold regular meetings to examine developments on the islands and inform them on the government's plans.

A teenager from Afghanistan was in serious condition on Monday after being stabbed inside the migrant identification center of Moria in Lesvos.

According to initial information, the 17-year-old was stabbed in the chest and abdomen by a 20-year-old fellow Afghani. The victim is being treated in the hospital of Mytilene, while the suspect was arrested.

Police on Friday arrested a 27-year-old foreign national in connection with the deadly stabbing of a 20-year-old Yemeni migrant during an altercation at the overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos on Thursday night. 
The suspect is said to have stabbed the victim in several parts of his body and then fled the scene.

The recent barrage of infringements continued on Tuesday with 91 airspace violations and 27 overflights by a total of 20 Turkish F-16 fighter jets, which even flew over inhabited islands including Leros in the southeastern Aegean.

While residents of Samothraki and Kythira as well as several other islands in the Aegean Sea fear another problem may deprive them of maritime transportation this year - following similar experiences in recent years - coastal shipping companies are striving to offer more vessels on the popular routes to the Cyclades and Crete.

High concentrations of dust are expected over the central and southern Aegean in the coming days, as a low pressure front from North Africa heads toward southern Crete, the Athens National Observatory's Meteo weather service said Tuesday.

In the next hours, rainfall is expected mainly in Crete, becoming more intense and spreading to the southern and central Aegean during the night.

A 32-year-old man was led before a prosecutor on the island of Chios on Tuesday, charged with disturbing the peace and violence against officials  during a meeting of the islands' municipal council on Monday.

The municipal council of the island of Chios, in the eastern Aegean, rejected a government proposal to set up a new, closed pre-departure center for migrants on the island, in a marathon session that ended at midnight on Monday.

According to the plan discussed, the centre would be created at the 15th kilometre of the Chios-Volissos road.

The municipal council of the island of Chios, in the eastern Aegean, rejected a government proposal to set up a new, closed pre-departure center for migrants on the island, in a marathon session that ended at midnight on Monday.

According to the plan discussed, the centre would be created at the 15th kilometre of the Chios-Volissos road.

The government's plan to ease pressure on Aegean islands amid the continuing arrival of irregular migrants from neighboring Turkey foresees 10 new centers on the mainland that will be able to host up to 15,000 asylum seekers, with the first 10,000 to be transferred from the islands to the new facilities by the end of February, Kathimerini understands.