Displaying items by tag: Greece

Several areas north of Athens were evacuated on 27 July as an out-of-control wildfire swept through a hillside forest threatening homes near Athens. Winds have dropped now but on 29 July the battle against wildfires continued throughout the night. 180 firefighters, eight ground units, 48 tenders, 2 helicopters and 2 aircraft are fighting the fire. Local municipalities have also deployed water tankers and construction machinery. On the first day of the blaze, six houses were burnt down and residents in eleven villages were told to evacuate their homes for precautionary reasons. At the time of writing four out of 13 regions are at ‘very high risk’ of fire according to the wildfire hazard map. 

Greece and Turkey were on the verge of military confrontation last August, after Turkey launched its seismic survey ship and a small naval fleet to explore for undersea oil and gas in Eastern Mediterranean waters which Greece claims as part of its exclusion zone, but Turkey disputes this. Although these zones do not entail the absolute sovereignty that territorial waters do, they give countries rights of exploration and exploitation of mineral and living resources. Last week, Greece doubled the extent of its western territorial waters in the Ionian Sea to twelve nautical miles - the maximum allowed by the UN. The possibility of conflict has alarmed both NATO, of which Greece and Turkey are members, and the EU. However, on 25 January Greece and Turkey announced they will begin exploratory talks in Istanbul, with the aim of setting maritime boundaries.

Deep snow left by Storm Filomena turned to ice, disrupting transport and lowering temperatures to -25C (-13F). The elderly are warned to stay at home. At least seven people have died due to the weather. ‘We are going to have this cold for a few more days, but we all pull together’, Yoli Asensio said, ‘Day-to-day life is difficult, access to homes and roads are blocked.’ There were 1,200 fracture cases in one day, caused by accidents on the ice - an average of fifty an hour. 1,300 snow-clearing vehicles managed to push snow off 12,100km of roads, to keep them ice-free. In contrast, Greece is basking in unusually warm weather, with Athens recording temperatures of 23C (73.4F) - the average January temperature is 10C.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are approximately 19,600 migrants and refugees on the Aegean islands as of 8 November. A series of large blazes destroyed Greece's largest migrant camp, Moria on the island of Lesbos, back in September. The Greek authorities said that the fires were deliberately started by the camp's residents. Officials on Samos reported a similar fire at a migrant camp on 2 November, the second blaze to hit such a facility over the last ten days. The cause of this fire has not yet been determined, and the number of migrant tents destroyed by the blaze is not yet known.

An earthquake in the Aegean Sea on 30 October has so far killed 107 people in Turkey and Samos. It is not yet clear on how many people are still under the rubble of 20 Turkish buildings; 144 survivors are still in hospital and over 1,000 people were injured in Turkey. A ‘mini tsunami’ flooded streets in Turkey and Samos. Four days after being buried alive a young girl called Ayda was pulled from the rubble. As she was being taken to an ambulance, wrapped in a thermal blanket, everyone clapped and chanted ‘God is great’. Her rescue came a day after a three-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl were also pulled out alive from collapsed buildings. Pray for those still waiting for news of lost relatives - and for any more still alive to be found.

A fire has destroyed Greece's Moria migrant camp on Lesbos. 13,000 are sleeping rough in fields, car parks and roads. Authorities have sent three ships to temporarily shelter 2,000 and are working to provide emergency accommodation near the destroyed camp. Germany called the blaze a ‘humanitarian disaster.’ Some locals attacked and prevented fleeing migrants from passing through their village. The UNHCR said it was aware of ‘tensions’ between nearby townsfolk and the migrants. Pray for those working to arrange shelter for 13,000 refugees. 70% are Afghani with 30% from 70 different countries. Authorities placed Moria under quarantine last week after a Somali migrant tested positive for the coronavirus. There are now 35 confirmed cases.

The Covid-19 pandemic will increase the number of deprived people, and make it harder for those who are already struggling. Often they cannot afford to pay rent or utility bills, keep homes warm enough, eat good quality food, run a car, own a washing machine or TV, or pay for a telephone. In 2019, 5.6% of the EU’s population - 24 million people - found themselves in this situation. The risk of increased poverty is especially high for young people, those with low levels of education, and single-parent families, especially those headed by women. The highest levels of severe deprivation in the EU last year were in Bulgaria (19.9%), Greece (15.9%) and Romania (12.6%). Portugal also has over 2 million people in poverty or social exclusion, and unemployment is set to double in 2020.

Saaremaa island, off the coast of Estonia, has been labelled by locals as ‘corona island’ after becoming a hotspot for the virus and being placed into strict quarantine. The first Covid-19 cases on Saaremaa began in March, after a sports event was held there with a team from Italy. Now health officials estimate that half of the island's population have contracted the virus. An overcrowded refugee camp on Chios had reports of an Iraqi asylum seeker dying after being cleared of having coronavirus. This caused riots and widespread damage by fire, leaving hundreds of people homeless. Many still believe she died of Covid-19. Sicily’s health services are stretched because of coronavirus, and 156 migrants on a German rescue ship were refused entry to its western coast. They had to be transferred to another vessel and quarantined.

A migrant crisis on the Turkey/Greece border is entwined with Idlib, the last stronghold of Syrian rebels backed by Turkey. Russia supports Syria and intends eradicating rebels from Idlib. When 34 Turkish soldiers died in Russian airstrikes, Turkey withdrew from an agreement to prevent refugees from crossing Turkey’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria, so by 5 March 25,000 refugees and migrants had gathered on the Greek border, seeking to cross into Europe. But they faced Greek troops repelling them with tear gas and water cannons on the land border and denying landing permission at the coast. EU leaders voiced unwavering solidarity with Greece, pledging to deploy urgent border guard reinforcements on land and at sea, and to disburse immediately some €350 million in aid, sending a message to the EU's 440 million citizens that they will prevent a new wave of arrivals at a time when the continent is struggling to prevent a coronavirus epidemic. See

Pray for the Greek government trying to find new solutions to unhealthy sanitary conditions for thousands of migrants living in camps. In January it was urged to order an immediate evacuation of 100+ sick children from Moria refugee camp on Lesbos. Médecins Sans Frontières accused Athens of ‘deliberately depriving’ at least 140 minors of adequate medical care for what they described as chronic, complex and life-threatening diseases, and said it was urgent they were moved from notorious Moria to the mainland or to other EU member states. The new conservative government announced that the current overcrowded camps will close this year’, planning to replace them with smaller facilities which should be operational by mid-2020. However, administrative officials and residents of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros, and Kos are gathering in front of the interior ministry to protest against these plans.