Arrivals and Departures
On 27 April, Sweden's Migration Agency forecast that Sweden expects between 40,000 and 100,000 people to claim asylum this year (which is a decrease from the original forecast of between 70,000 and 140,000).
Conditions of People
In Greece, Alternate Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas has agreed to the permanent presence of lawyers in two accommodation centers (Elaionas in Athens, and Moria on Lesvos island), following a meeting with the head of the Athens Bar Association. The Ministry said the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has also expressed an interest in offering legal aid to refugees in Moria.
Speaking to the ANA-MPA news agency on 27 April, following clashes between migrants and riot police at Moria on Tuesday evening which resulted in the injury of 15 people, Minister Mouzalas said the government is “concerned, not proud and not happy, but […]everyone is trying hard”. “There were a few minor scuffles that grew later in the night and necessitated police intervention. Now the situation is looking calm,” he said, speaking from the general hospital at the island’s capital, Mytilene. He also confirmed that 15 minors in their late teens were injured in the clashes; Mouzalas added that they are among some 90 unaccompanied minors being held for processing at the Moria center.
In Eidomeni, where thousands continue to live in dismal conditions at the border between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Hellenic Police is distributing leaflets among refugees and migrants urging them to leave the informal site for the official accommodation facilities established by the Greek Government throughout the mainland. The spokesperson of the Inter-Ministerial
Coordination Body, Giorgos Kyritsis, announced the transfer of 4,500 people from Eidomeni in the next 10 days to four sites outside Thessaloniki as well as Lagkadikia.
On 27 April afternoon, at the Handover Ceremony of the Olympic Flame from Greece to the Rio 2016 organizers at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, both the President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Mr. Spyros Capralos, and the Head of the Rio de Janeiro Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, Mr. Carlos Nuzman, expressed solidarity with the plight of refugees worldwide. He praised the Syrian refugee athlete who carried the Olympic Torch at Elaionas site on Tuesday, as a symbolic gesture to highlight the strength and resilience of all refugees.