Second ferry of relocated asylum seekers docks in Thessaloniki

A second ferry carrying hundreds of asylum seekers who are being relocated from the overcrowded Moria camp on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos to mainland facilities docked in the northern port city of Thessaloniki on Tuesday morning.

The Aqua Blue was carrying 379 of a total of 1,400 people who are slated for relocation at a camp in Nea Kavala and other parts of the mainland in a bid to ease pressure on the islands, where there has also been a fresh spike in arrivals in recent weeks.

The first relocation ferry docked in northern Greece on Monday, carrying around 640 migrants and asylum seekers from Moria.

The Nea Kavala facility is expected to take in around 1,000 of the 1,400 people slated for transfer, though authorities said this will only be a temporary move until the construction of a new camp is completed.

There are concerns that the new arrivals will stretch the Nea Kavala facility's capacity, especially with regards to sanitation and water supply, according to comments by local mayor Kostas Sionidis to the Voria news site on Monday.

Sionidis said that existing infrastructure cannot cope with any increase in demands, specifically calling for two new garbage trucks to be added to the municipal fleet as well as a solution to the water supply problem.

The Citizens' Protection Ministry responded to these concerns, saying that they will be addressed “immediately.”

According to reports in local media, the Nea Kavala facility was built with a capacity of 800 and already hosts a population of over 1,000.