Prosecutor steps in after Kamena Vourla residents prevent food delivery to refugee children

A prosecutor in Lamia, central Greece, ordered an investigation on Monday into an incident involving a group of residents in the town of Kamena Vourla that prevented a truck carrying food and bedding from reaching a hotel hosting a group of unaccompanied refugee children over the weekend.

Residents protesting the presence of migrants in their town on Saturday blocked the road leading to the hotel where the Migration Ministry has placed a group of children who are being transferred to other countries in the European Union after being displaced by the fires that destroyed the Moria camp on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos earlier this month.

Town residents had also protested the arrival of the children last Wednesday by setting up a symbolic blockade on the Athens-Lamia national highway to express their displeasure and saying that had they known the refugees were coming to their town, they would have prevented this from happening.

Saturday’s incident caused a furor on social media but also prompted a statement from the government, with spokesman Stelios Petsas saying that it was “incomprehensible” that anyone should have such a reaction against a group of children.