Aegean Sea

The numbers of refugees and migrants landing on the Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea are on the rise. 167 migrants and refugees arrived on the island of Chios in just one day, while a total of 397 have landed there since last Friday. This brings the aggregate number to 4,047, double the 2,000 capacity of the organised reception centres.

Turkish politicians continue to provoke Greece on the matter of the so-called ‘disputed’ islands in the Aegean Sea.

Tensions between Greece and Turkey over the status of a series of Greeks isles and islets in the Aegean Sea are rising, following a barrage of statements made by the Turkish political establishment.

As Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras joins nine of his European counterparts, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in Vienna on Saturday to discuss the refugee crisis, authorities on the Aegean islands on Friday struggled to keep order at overcrowded migrant reception centers.

A new round of restructuring is under way in the Greek coastal shipping industry, with its catalyst being the tender by Piraeus Bank for the sale of a 40.44 percent stake in Hellenic Seaways (HSW) that belongs to the lender's portfolio.

Human smugglers have started to use new rhetoric in order to trick migrants in Turkey into making the perilous journey to Greek islands with the hope of a better life, while also lowering the prices of the journeys on mostly unsafe dinghies.  

The final exhibition of the season at Bozcaada Art Gallery, on the island of Bozcaada off Turkey's northwestern province of Çanakkale, is titled "A Meeting of Ceramics, Glass and Sculpture," and features the work of many local artists.

Residents of Lesvos are alarmed over information that construction of a new hotspot on the Aegean island is under way. Video footage of ongoing construction work at the deserted military outpost of Lemonou, has raised concern among the local population.

There was unrest at a reception center on the Aegean island of Chios early on Monday when young migrants set fire to mattresses and other bedding in a protest at their living conditions and at delays in processing their requests for asylum.

Police intervened before the protest escalated and there were no reports of any injuries.

The government proves day by day that it is incompetent to handle the approximately 54,000 refugees and migrants stranded in Greece after the EU-Turkey agreement.