But while Europeans are worrying about suicide bombers and hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing the continent, a two-pronged new crisis has been building in Greece. In early March, the Republic of Macedonia sealed its border with Greece, leaving tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Greece, which until then had mainly been a passageway for asylum seekers leaving Turkey for new lives in Northern Europe.
And here’s the other bad news no one has been talking about: The Greek economy is showing little sign of improvement. In June and July, the country faces more than 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion) of debt repayments, money it will not have unless Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can negotiate with creditors to access more money from its third bailout package.
See http://europe.newsweek.com/greece-greek-economy-refugee-crisis-debt-449410
It also shows the common humanity of many Greek towards the refugees, which is to be applauded.
In the early evening of February 22, Lefteris Ioannidis, Kozani’s mayor, was at home with his family when he received a phone call from the police. They told him that five buses, carrying 380 mostly Syrian refugees—half of them children—had been diverted to a gas station 20 miles from Kozani.
Ioannidis, 39, who is tall with graying hair and glasses, was unruffled. He quickly decided to house the refugees overnight in an unused sports stadium on the edge of town, and his office put out a statement on social media asking citizens for their help. Within a few hours of their arrival, people had arrived to lay down mats in the gym and clean the bathrooms; they brought food, water, baby food, clothes and shoes for the refugees. Initially, the mayor expected them to stay only one or two nights. Nearly two months later, more than 2,000 refugees have been sheltered in Kozani before moving on, either to Idomeni or to government-run centers in the region.
Lets all hope the Crises can be resolved in the best way possible: it is tragic that for example Turkey, not Greece has got so much investment from EU companies to build cars etc, for sale to Europe.
Idiot!
