Foreign Office changes Greece travel advice and issues new guidance

Update on Thursday, March 5

The Foreign Office has issued NEW travel advice for Greece. The FCDO has amended its travel advice for the European Union holiday hotspot on Thursday, March 5.

It updated UK holidaymakers and announced the “removal of information about mass demonstrations and widespread disruption to public services across Greece on 28 February.”

Tens of thousands of Greeks rallied in Athens, the capital city of the go-to European Union holiday destination for Brits, and other cities on Saturday to mark the anniversary of a 2023 train crash. It was the country’s deadliest rail disaster in history, with the demonstrators demanding justice ahead of a criminal trial set to begin next month.

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Protesters laid flowers and held banners reading “Justice” outside parliament. “We seek one thing: Justice,” said Pavlos Aslanidis, head of the victims’ relatives association in a speech.

“It wasn’t an accident, it was murder,” read one banner in Athens. The Greek Actors’ Union and unions of private employees and freelancers also participated, while the Civil Servants’ Confederation called on public-sector workers to participate in the protests.

“We continue to fight for exclusively public rail transport, so there is no cover-up of the crime and that criminal and political responsibilities are attributed to all those involved,” it noted.

“Three years after the accident in Tempi that deeply affected all Greeks, the memory of the victims and the pain of their relatives unite in a common demand: that those responsible for the tragedy be held accountable in a strict and impartial manner in the trial that is now beginning,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a message on Saturday.

Around 300 people protested outside the Greek Embassy in Holland Park, London. Among their chants were: “They are talking about profit and losses – We are talking about human lives!”

Despoina, a lecturer in finance, said: “It is a big frustration and disappointment and anger about the fact that three years after the criminal incident we haven’t seen any progress with justice”.

She pointed to “all the obstacles” faced by survivors and relatives, adding, “Every political person involved, they have complete impunity…

“Everyone who’s higher up seems like they’re getting away with murder and this is literal.”