Greek authorities easing congestion at island migrant camps

Greek authorities were moving nearly 1,000 refugees from eastern Aegean islands to the mainland Tuesday as part of efforts to improve conditions in overcrowded island refugee camps.

Most of the 946 people on a ferry due to dock at Lavrio, near Athens, had been at a temporary facility hastily built on the island Lesvos to replace a camp that was burned down by angry residents three weeks ago. Others came from camps on Kos, Samos, Chios and Leros.

Just over 26,000 refugees and migrants live in camps on Greek islands, where they arrived after crossing from the nearby Turkish coast in smuggling boats. More than half are on Lesvos.

Greek officials have pledged to drastically reduce the islands’ migrant populations by moving people who have been granted refugee status to mainland accommodations, taking advantage of a drastic drop in arrivals from Turkey that resulted from stronger policing of the sea border.

The government has also voiced hopes that all the migrants currently on the islands will have been moved to the mainland within six months.

On Tuesday, officials said all unaccompanied teenagers and children living in camps on the islands or on Greece’s land border with Turkey had been moved to appropriate facilities on the mainland.

Buses were waiting at Lavrio to carry the migrants to a new rented accommodation where they are expected to stay for the next two months.

Nearly 13,000 people have entered Greece illegally so far this year, considerably fewer than in 2019. [AP]