Seas

Greece's eastern islands are struggling to cope with a surge in arrivals of migrants and asylum-seekers that has undermined efforts to ease severe overcrowding at refugee camps.

The European Union's top migration official is urging EU member states to back a temporary plan to quickly get migrants off boats in the Mediterranean Sea and distribute them among willing countries.

Two islets off Turkey's Aegean coast have been put up for sale with online ads by their owners.

The number of tourists visiting the ancient Phrygian Valley, which covers a large area in the central Turkey expanding through the Aegean, has doubled in 2019, according to a local official. 

Over 30 areas have been identified for hydrocarbon exploration in the Ionian Sea and off the coast of western and southern Crete, the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) reported on Sunday.

The map of "plots" was presented by Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources Management chief Yiannis Basias at an energy conference on the Eastern Mediterranean, ANA-MPA said.

Greece's prime minister accused Turkey on Friday of appearing to "exploit" Europe's migrant crisis for its own ends and said Ankara can and must control migrant flows to the continent.

Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria have decided to launch a joint initiative for migrants in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Greek Ministry of Citizens Protection announced in a press release. The initiative will be presented to the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the European Union on 7-8 October in Luxembourg.

Amid a renewed interest in energy opportunities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece emerges as a key ally in the region with "direct positive impact" on Europe's energy security and diversification, US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt said on Tuesday at the First Annual Eastern Mediterranean Energy Leadership Summit held in Athens.

Deputy Citizens' Protection Minister Lefteris Economou says that 250 people will be transferred from the overcrowded Moria migrant camp on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos to the mainland by the end of Monday.

Turkish police early on Sept. 30 seized nearly 1 ton of drugs in the Aegean province of Izmir.