Overcrowding at Lesvos migrant center worsening

Overcrowding at the Moria migrant camp on Lesvos has reached worrying proportions, with 8,359 residents cramped into a facility designed to hold just 3,100, though the head of the center has rebuffed media claims that the bad conditions are pushing children to attempt suicide.

Although the transfer of vulnerable migrants to the mainland continues, arrivals from Turkey are also ongoing, Yiannis Balpakakis, the camp’s director, told Kathimerini. Sixty-six migrants left for Piraeus on Tuesday and 55 arrived on Wednesday, he said.

According to Apostolos Veizis from the Greek chapter of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), asylum applications are at around the same level as in November 2015, near the peak of the refugee crisis.

As for a BBC report claiming that children as young as 10 are trying to take their lives at Moria, Balpakakis expressed surprise, saying MSF officials have not reported such incidents.