The recent unveiling by the City of Athens of its ambitious plans for Vasilissis Olgas Avenue came as an indirect response to the negative reactions toward the works to revamp the city center.

A return to telework and staggered shifts is on the cards for civil servants in the public sector and at municipal authorities due to the spike in the coronavirus pandemic, according to Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos.

Amid concerns about a steady increase in coronavirus infections in the country, government officials on Monday signified their readiness to intensify restrictions. Meanwhile experts are concerned about a spike in new cases over the past two weeks, to 6.1 per 100,000 people from 4.2 per 100,000.

The Athens Municipality is offering a plot of land in the district Elaionas for the construction of a temporary accommodation facility for migrants arriving from the islands, beside an existing camp.

The City of Athens is considering developing business “clusters” in the capital as part of a scheme to help local businesses benefit from its Grand Walk initiative, a network of pedestrianized streets and bicycle lanes, Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said on Friday. 

In the wake of the increased number of migrant arrivals in Athens as part of the decongestion of the Aegean islands, with many setting up camp in central Victoria Square, the Migration Ministry has, belatedly, started procedures for their inclusion in the HELIOS program for recognized asylum seekers. 

Although the number of arrivals of undocumented migrants on the Aegean islands from Turkey is down significantly – some 50 percent from last year – the influx of migrants to the mainland and city squares is a new headache for the authorities.

The Migration Ministry is setting up a special body of lawyers to help the Asylum Service expedite applications.

The Grand Walk, a network of pedestrian and bicycle lanes in the center of Athens, will extend to the lower end of Syntagma Square from Saturday evening.

A City Hall initiative aimed at purging Athens of unsightly posters and graffiti has focused on the capital’s central Patission Street over the past 10 days and was to shift to Athinas Street, between Monastiraki and Omonia Square, on Wednesday night.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis has sought 132.68 million euros from the state budget to press forward with the construction of new reception centers for migrants on the islands of Kos, Leros and Samos as a request for European Union funding for the projects has yet to be approved.

The European Union-funded ESTIA program for asylum seekers in Greece, which has been run by the United Nations refugee agency since 2016, is to come under the control of the Migration Ministry by the end of the year.

Only 18 of the 40 nongovernmental organizations that have been working in migrant reception centers around the country will henceforth have access to the facilities, the Migration Ministry said on Wednesday, after the deadline for NGOs to apply for inclusion in a new registry expired.

The Migration Ministry has opened an office offering travel documents to refugees to help them go to other European Union countries, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said on Tuesday, following the departure of hundreds of migrants from state facilities.

Central squares in Athens, and Victoria in particular, are once again turning into makeshift camps for migrants evicted from state camps or accommodation following an announcement by the government that thousands of people who have secured refugee status must leave those facilities.

A government bid to move thousands of refugees out of state facilities and subsidized accommodation to make room for new asylum seekers is stalling as only very few people have departed, Kathimerini understands.

The government’s plan to move asylum seekers from overcrowded camps on the Aegean islands to less cramped facilities on the mainland has stalled amid opposition by local communities.

Amid vehement opposition from locals against the operation of a migrant camp that opened Malakasa, east of the Greek capital, in March, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said on Monday it will be the first of its kind on the mainland as the movement of its residents will be tightly monitored.

Mismanagement and a lack of planning has resulted in an inefficient response to the migration crisis in Greece, according to a confidential report by an international organization seen by Kathimerini.

About 11,000 recognized refugees are facing an uncertain future as they will gradually have to leave their current accommodation facilities starting in June, as part of the Migration Policy Ministry’s plan to replace them with asylum seekers from the islands, in a bid to decongest the local camps.