Regional units of Greece

A total of 114 refugees and migrants have been rescued in three separate incidents in the area lying between the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos and Chios since last Thursday, according to the Greek coast guard.

A boat carrying 38 illegal migrants communicate a distress signal off the coast of the island of Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea, Saturday morning. According to sources, there are 13 children among the people on the boat who are in urgent need of medical attention. Ambulances have converged on the island’s port to take those in need of care to hospital.

Every year at Passover, Jacob Cohen leaves his home in Drama and heads to Thessaloniki to celebrate the holiday and attend services at a synagogue. Jacob is 75 years old and is not only the last living Jew in Drama, but in all of eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

As pressure remains high on the Aegean islands - with thousands of migrants continuing to arrive and few leaving - European officials are urging the Greek government to accelerate the processing of asylum applications.

A handful of islands in the eastern Aegean - Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros - continue to bear the brunt of daily arrivals from neighboring Turkey.

A total of 124 migrants and refugees have landed on Greek shores in the past 24 hours, with 80 arriving on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos, 30 on Chios and 14 on Leros.

According to official figures, 62,204 migrants and refugees are currently stranded in mainland Greece and its islands.

Workers at migrant reception centers on the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos and Samos are demanding the renewal of their contracts, which will begin to expire next month.

Sixteen suspects were arrested and six were briefly detained during a two-day police operation at migrant facilities on the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos, in the eastern Aegean, authorities said.

Most of the arrests were made in connection with drugs and weapons possession, according to authorities.
 

A new increase of the refugees and illegal immigrants in Lesvos, Chios and Samos from Thursday to Monday. In total 566 new arrivals have been recorded making the number of people trapped in the Aegean Sea islands climb to 8.759!

New arrivals to the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos have raised the number of migrants landing in Greece from neighboring Turkey since last Thursday to 566, government figures showed on Monday.

The figure represents a significant increase compared to arrivals in the rest of March and for the whole of February.

The mayors of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos - the five eastern Aegean islands worst hit by the refugee crisis - secured a European Union pledge of 50 million euros in emergency assistance during their recent trip to Brussels, they told reporters in Athens on Thursday.