Giorgos Koumoutsakos

One hundred and six asylum-seekers left Greece on Wednesday for Mulhouse, France, according to a Migration Ministry press release Wednesday.

The transport is part of a plan to relocate a total of 1,000 people to France, the ministry said.

So far, 275 asylum seekers and 131 unaccompanied migrant and refugee children have already been relocated to France.

Greece participated as an observer in a meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) for the first time on Thursday.

The meeting was chaired by Switzerland's Deputy Migration Minister Mario Gattiker, while Greece was represented by his counterpart Giorgos Koumoutsakos.

Belgium confirmed its intention to receive 150 refugees and asylum seekers from Greece by the end of the year during a teleconference on Wednesday between Deputy Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos and the Belgian secretary of state for asylum and migration, Sammy Mahdi.

Koumoutsakos thanked the Belgian government for its practical solidarity with Greece.

There is no evidence of an organized plan by Turkey to send migrants to the border with Greece, as was the case last March, Alternate Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos told Greek broadcaster SKAI on Thursday morning.

"There is no confirmation of an organized plan," he said, adding there is "spontaneous mobility" near the area which is not unusual and has happened in the past.

The US government will provide 2.9 million dollars in financial assistance to Greece to improve the living conditions of unaccompanied minors and support the islands against the Covid-19 pandemic, it was announced by Alternate Minister for Citizens' Protection Giorgos Koumoutsakos and US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt following a meeting on Thursday.

US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt on Thursday conveyed a decision by the State Department to bolster humanitarian aid to Greece in a telephone conversation with Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos.

Greece applied for membership to the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the Migration Ministry announced in a press release on Tuesday.

A group of 50 refugees - including 16 unaccompanied minors and 34 adults being reunited with their families - were to resettle in the UK on Monday.

Officials in Athens are trying to make sense of what they see as erratic behavior emanating from Ankara, which on the one hand is requesting a moratorium on military exercises in the Aegean due to the coronavirus pandemic, and on the other is continuing its tactic of low-level tensions regarding the Greek islands.

Greece's migration ministry said Thursday Finland has agreed to take in 100 unaccompanied refugee children and 30 adults, expanding the number of European countries which have begun taking in young asylum-seekers from Greece.