From the Athens News

THE INTERIOR ministry announced on June 17 that non-European Union nationals in Greece who are in the process of renewing their residence permit may travel to their homeland this summer as long as they leave after June 20 and return before September 19.
Immigrants will be allowed to re-enter the country on or [...]

I took this on Monday while I was out on my travels. A great example of the graffiti I DO like to see.

The caption beside the figure at the bottom reads “Long live mice on the metro”
Technorati Tags: greece, graffiti, street art, athens

From Kathimerini
[The links are mine]

The Greek office of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) yesterday expressed serious concerns about the situation of “dozens of unaccompanied minors” being detained at a substandard migrant reception center on Lesvos.
Many children are said to be in a “poor psychological state,” with some reportedly threatening to go on hunger strikes.
The [...]

THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY was born on June 22nd 2005 at 6:15pm.
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Today I am celebrating three years of blogging. Every year I have written a summary of the past year. I see no reason why I shouldn’t carry on the tradition. [...]

Today is World Refugee Day.
Take some time to educate yourself

From Human Rights Watch
Refugees and Displaced Persons
Who
A refugee is someone with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, who is outside of his or her country of nationality and [...]

My blog guru, vegankid, has updated my wordpress to the latest version so I am spending a bit of time this week tweaking and adding useful plugins. This is what I’ve done so far…
I have reinstalled Gravatar. This puts a small icon beside your comments if you have one. If you don’t have one and [...]

It’s a gorgeous day and I am looking forward to having a leisurely lunch with a very good friend. I love summer especially when it’s cooler in the evenings like it is right now. Summertime for blogs is a different matter. People go out more, spend less time at their computers tapping away. That’s a [...]

From Kathimerini
New legislation that would give unmarried couples the same rights as married ones, is on its way towards parliament. However, these rights will not be extended to gay and lesbian couples.

The brainchild of Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis, the draft bill would allow unmarried couples to acquire all the tax, insurance and social benefits currently [...]

It’s Thursday.
It’s time for DD live.
It’s a good day for a chat.
If anyone feels like meeting up tonight, I’ll be there.

Please see under DD live if you want to join the chatroom.

From an article today at BBC News entitled Asylum seekers ‘abused’ in Greece

Allegations that Greek police are abusing, threatening and torturing asylum-seekers are clearly taken very seriously in Athens.
The man responsible for the treatment of immigrants, spokesman for the Public Order Department of the Interior Ministry, Athanasios Andreolakos, offers the BBC more than an [...]

From The Guardian

An attempt to stop homosexual women calling themselves lesbians begins in Athens today with a court hearing that comes amid growing national debate over gay rights in one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries.
The hearing has been initiated by plaintiffs on the Aegean island of Lesbos, who say they are unhappy that gay [...]

Teacher Dude has a post up today on The Voice of the Socially Excluded conference in Thessaloniki.

However, the most heartrending moments were delivered by Alexandros Karasiadis, a member of a team of Greek lawyers and human rights activists who have been investigating what can only be termed Greece’s hidden gulag in which asylum seekers [...]

My thoughts are with those affected by the earthquake that hit Greece yesterday.
It happened at 3.25pm on Sunday in the area of Kato Achaia and was a 6.5 magnitude quake. 2 people died and approximately 125 people were injured.
I felt it here in Athens and that was scary enough. I cannot imagine how [...]

We have won a victory. And I do mean we.
We are not all lawyers. Most of us do not have the ability to go to court and fight for human rights but we are still part of the whole picture. Some of us can do no more than just write and take pictures. Some [...]

It’s Thursday.
It’s time for DD live
If anyone feels like meeting up tonight, I’ll be here.

Please see under DD live if you want to join the chatroom.