The Greek government on Tuesday put the number of Mideast refugees and migrants in the country -- who entered Greek territory from Turkey over the recent period as part of the refugee / migrant crisis – at just more than 54,000.
Of those, roughly 7,500 are still stranded on eastern Aegean islands; nearly 15,000 in the greater Athens area and nearly 3,300 still camped out at the port of Piraeus. A makeshift refugee camp set up directly on Greece’s northern border at the Idomeni site continues to host more than 10,200 third country nationals, despite repeated promises by the government to evacuate the group.
In a related development, the wife of Jordanian monarch Abdullah II, Rania, will visit a refugee camp on the island of Lesvos (Lesbos) next week. The Jordanian royal was invited to the island by the international NGO International Rescue Committee.
Jordan, an arid Middle East country with a very modest economy, is hosting millions of Syrians fleeing the civil war in that country, as is Lebanon and Turkey.
