Samos

The arrival of migrants dropped 91 pct in May compared with the same month last year, according to data released by the Migration Policy Ministry on Thursday.

On four islands (Chios, Samos, Leros, Kos) there were no arrivals last month.

The tension was palpable at the weekend at migrant facilities on the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos, Samos and Chios, with asylum seekers frustrated as they are not permitted to move outside the camps and are forced to wait in line for hours for food as a result of the problems created by the coronavirus restrictions.

Following a visit to the Aegean island of Samos in the wake of rioting and a spate of fires at the Vathy reception center for migrants, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis on Tuesday described the situation there as "extremely difficult."

Just a week after the fire at the Vial migrant reception center on the eastern Aegean island of Chios on April 18, successive fires broke out in and around a camp Samos on Sunday, which, according to all indications, were due to arson.

In less than 24 hours, 27 people were detained, 21 of whom were arrested.

Seven migrants were detained on Monday in connection with the clashes that broke out between migrant groups at the Vathy Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) for migrants and refugees - known as VIAL - on the island of Samos on Monday. 

Scores of asylum-seekers were left homeless when a fire tore through a  camp on the Greek island of Samos, a migration ministry official said on April 27.    

"Around 200 people have been left homeless," Migration Ministry Secretary Manos Logothetis told AFP.    

There were no immediate reports of injuries.    

Greece raised the issue of Ankara's aggression during Wednesday's NATO summit of defense ministers via teleconference as Turkish fighter jets this month smashed the record of Aegean overflights. 

A pair of Turkish fighter jets infringed on Athens' Flight Information Region (FIR) and flew over several Greek islands on the eastern Aegean on Wednesday.

The F-16s flew over the eastern coast of Samos at 12.52 p.m. and 12.53 p.m., the islets of Arki and Grylousa at 12.56 p.m., Lipsi at 12.57 p.m. and Farmakonissi at 12.59 p.m. at 27,000 feet.

The Greek coast guards harassing a Turkish-flagged merchant ship which was traveling in line with the international maritime law in the south of the Samos Island of the Aegean Sea, immediately left the area following arrival of the Turkish Armed Forces, said security sources on April 9. 

The death in February of Greek writer Alki Zei, at the age of 97, closes not only a life of distinguished authorship but also a period of Greek history which is about to come under review. With the bicentenary of the War of Independence next year, and the centenary of the Anatolian Catastrophe in 2022, Zei's lifetime embraces many cardinal points of modern history.