Asylum seeker

The European Union agreed on Wednesday on new rules to handle irregular arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants, a deal hailed as a breakthrough after almost a decade of bitter feuds on the issue.

EU countries and lawmakers reached an agreement yesterday on an overhaul of the bloc's laws on handling asylum-seekers and migrants, officials said.

Children living in a center for refugees and asylum seekers performed at the Athens Conservatoire on Friday, under the direction of Dee Isaacs, professor of music at the University of Edinburgh.

The children, who reside at the in Ritsona camp, north of Athens, were accompanied by the Cellos for Change band.

Two Russian women who are part of the LGBTQ community have been living in limbo for over a year as they struggle to obtain refugee status in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian State Refugee Agency (DAB) has refused their applications, putting them at risk of deportation to Russia, a country that has increasingly become hostile to LGBTQ individuals.

Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Keridis was on his first visit to the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos since being appointed on Tuesday, touring migrant and refugee camps and meeting with local officials.

European Union countries have reached a long-delayed agreement on a fair distribution of refugees and migrants. The decision was reached last night in Luxembourg by interior ministers.

The reform is in two directions - on the one hand with the countries under pressure, and on the other - an accelerated procedure for some of the migrants' applications.

The European Commission has called on Greek authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into fresh allegations of illegal migrant pushbacks, stated Ylva Johansson, the EU's Home Affairs Commissioner, on Monday.

Many European countries are illegally returning migrants and asylum seekers, according to a report by the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee, which has identified a systematic policy of physical abuse of people trying to enter Europe.

In 2022, 881,200 people who were not citizens of the European Union applied for asylum for the first time in member states, which is 64% more than in 2021, shows the latest Eurostat data published on Thursday on the website of the statistical agency. 

The UK government's proposed asylum law is "very worrying", the UN refugee agency has warned.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative in the United Kingdom, Vicky Tennant, commented to the BBC that the measure would violate international law and was not necessary to stop Channel crossings.