Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-18

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Family of 7-year-old refugee suffering from cancer found in Thessaloniki

[02] New Democracy: EU-Turkey deal is positive step, but implementation is key

[03] Greek public prosecutors have second meeting with whistleblower Falciani

[01] Family of 7-year-old refugee suffering from cancer found in Thessaloniki

According to the information, the family of Rami is hosted in a hotel managed by Greek NGO "Arsis" and is expected to submit an asylum application on Monday. The head of the coordinating body, Giorgos Kyritsis, said Greek authorities will ensure their application is processed swiftly for humanitarian reasons and will immediately contact German authorities to help reunite the family. He said he's certain that there will be a positive response.

The story of Rami, which was first reported in "The Independent" on March 15, quickly gained momentum internationally and even reached Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

According to the British paper, Rami was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma five years ago – just after the start of the war in Syria began. While he was in hospital, his family was displaced from their home in Tadamoun by violence. His father eventually made the decision to try and get the two of them to Germany via the smuggling routes, which they eventually did, and Rami was able to continue his therapy in a hospital, the paper reports.

In Germany, the doctors told his father that the boy's siblings are potentially the best donors, however they are unable to reach the country because the borders have closed and processing the family could take months.

[02] New Democracy: EU-Turkey deal is positive step, but implementation is key

The party noted, however, that the deal alone doesn't solve the problem and that it must be implemented effectively.

ND also said the text seems, at first, complicated and unclear, as it raises some serious questions: Can it be implemented in practice? And if it can, will it have the results the country urgently needs?

"Until these questions are answered in practice, Greece will remain with closed borders at the north and dozens of thousands of stranded refugees and migrants," the party added in its press release.

[03] Greek public prosecutors have second meeting with whistleblower Falciani

Falciani agreed to have another meeting with prosecutors Eleni Touloupaki, Christos Ntzouras and Giorgos Kaloudis, in addition to a meeting held last September on information contained in the so-called "Lagarde list" sent to Greece. According to sources, the IT expert gave the prosecutors new insights into practices used by those with large deposits to hide sums and avoid tax.

This knowhow will be used by financial prosecutors in their investigation into the HSBC list and the investigation into the 'Borjans list' of 10,000 depositors with UBS accounts from 2006 until 2008. The information given by Falciani is also expected to help in the investigation of hundreds of tax offences by major depositors abroad and a parallel investigation into the suspected action of a criminal group that "smuggled" huge sums in undeclared earnings abroad in order to conceal and legalise them.

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