The migratory flow in Greece is changing. Joint Operation (JO) Poseidon Sea seems to offer the first results in limiting the crossing into Greece of illegal migrants, states Frontex Situational update.

The numbers of migrants crossing the Greek-Turkish land border dropped from over 2000 a week in the first week of August to little over 200 by the end of the month. This is the direct effect of increased surveillance and patrolling activities by the Greek authorities, which included the deployment of 1800 officers along the Evros river at the beginning of August.

In September, detections dropped even further from around 70 a week at the beginning of the month to below 30 in the second half. As crossing the border in the Evros region has become more difficult, the number of nationalities attempting to cross has also dropped; from over 60 to fewer than ten, with the majority of migrants now coming from Iraq, Syria and Eritrea.

As a reaction, some displacement effect has already taken place along the South Eastern border, with increasing numbers of migrants arriving mainly in the Greek Aegean Islands of Samos, Symi, Lesvos and Farmaconisi. At the sea border with Turkey, weekly detection rates grew from around six in July to approximately 180 in August and September.

In October, as response to the growing migratory pressure in the Eastern Aegean, Frontex has strengthen Joint Operation (JO) Poseidon Sea with additional air and maritime surveillance assets.

At the land border between Turkey and Bulgaria the numbers of illegal border crossing have also risen since August and vary between 40 and 70 a week. Frontex JO Poseidon Land at this border is an ongoing operation and supports the Bulgarian authorities with the screening and debriefing of irregular migrants.

The number of Syrians arriving in an irregular way in Europe via Turkey has also been growing steadily since the beginning of the year. The increase has been dramatic in July when up to 800 Syrians were crossing the Greek-Turkish land border every week. Currently Syrians still constitute a significant percentage of all migrants arriving in Greece. For example since 1 August out of over 1300 migrants who arrived in the Aegean islands nearly 30% were Syrian nationals.

Although increasing numbers of illegal border crossing are detected at the sea border and in Bulgaria, the total number of migrants is still quite low in comparison with numbers detected in the Evros region before additional resources were deployed there. Since the beginning of the year, over 30 000 migrants have been detected in the Evros region alone.

It is believed that a significant number of persons are still awaiting passage in Turkey.

Israel’s Defence Minister told Israeli radio, “The immediate executors are people form Hezbollah, who of course have constant Iranian sponsorship.”

The tourists had arrived from Israel on a charter flight and were waiting in a bus in the car park at Burgas Airport, on the Black Sea, at the time the blast took place.

Just hours after the attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was to blame for the attack and that “Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror.”

A bombing on a bus with Israeli tourists in Bulgaria was likely carried out by a male suicide attacker, Bugaria’s interior minister said Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, it was reported that the death toll from the attack rose to six Israelis, after one of the wounded succumbed to his wounds in the hospital, the bus driver and the suicide bomber, according to Haaretz. 

Video surveillance in front of the airport and the investigation showed the bomber could not be distinguished among arriving Israeli tourists. “He looked like everybody else – a normal person with Bermuda shorts and a backpack,” Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said, according to Reuters.

 About 34 wounded Israeli tourists will be flown back to Israel in the next hours, Haaretz reported.

The blast came on the 18th anniversary of a 1994 bomb attack on the headquarters of Argentina’s main Jewish organization by a Hezbollah suicide bomber, which killed 85 people, Reuters writes.

Israel and Western powers have accused Iran for developing a nuclear weapons and have not rules out military action against the Islamic Republic, while Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Hezbollah is a powerful political party and militant group  in Lebanon backed by Iran and Syria. In 2006 it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

The possible sale is “part of a strategy for refinancing 3.4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of debt maturing over the next two years,” OTE’s press office told the Capital.gr.

OTE, controlled by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, has hired investment bank Citigroup to assist with the sale, with the firm’s board having taken the decision to sell the unit several days ago, Capital said.

According to Reuters,  analysts believe that the Turkish mobile operator Turkcell may show interest in buying the Globul. In the past the Turkish company had expressed interest in buying Bulgarian Vivacom but it decided to suspend the sale.

Globul’s new owner will be chosen by Deutsche Telekom, which has a 40-percent stake in OTE, together with the Greek government, which has a “golden share,” Capital added.

Globul is Bulgaria’s second largest mobile phone operator with 4.3 million clients, corporate data show.

Fierce competition has led to continuous erosion of the retail prices mainly in the corporate segment and the market has approached saturation with estimated penetration of 147%, according to OTE.

Total revenues for 2011 reached EUR 412.5 M, or 2.6% lower than 2010.