Government blasted for failing to ease crowding at hotspots

Lesvos Mayor Spyros Galinos chided the government on Tuesday for not living up to its promises to ease crowded conditions at accommodation centers sheltering asylum seekers on eastern Aegean islands, saying nothing has been done.

Echoing the same sentiment, the Lesvos municipal council expressed its opposition to talk about the creation of a new accommodation center to deal with overcrowding. It called for the immediate decongestion of all existing centers, with the transfer of some asylum seekers to the mainland – measures that will ensure respectable living conditions.

It added that it is opposed to “the effort to turn Lesvos from an island of humanity and solidarity into a prison for thousands of people.”

Meanwhile, the council also ordered an investigation into reports that some nongovernmental organizations, or members of NGOs, operating on the island are connected to people smugglers.