The Greek government continued to transfer migrants from overcrowded camps on its islands to the country’s mainland over the weekend, with authorities reporting that a total of 795 arrived at the port of Eleusis near Athens.
Before being transferred to Greece’s mainland, the migrants had been living at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos in the Aegean sea, where close to 15,000 migrants live in a camp that was originally meant for just 3,000 people. The migrants were said to be transported by Greek naval ships, AP reports.
Last month, migrants clashed with police and set fire to camps on two occasions on the Greek islands of Samos and Lesbos, prompting some inside the government to call for immediate action to be taken.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one senior government official told AP that the government has plans to transport 5,000 migrants over to the country’s mainland over the next two weeks.
According to the same official, the hotels will be used to accommodate the migrants. He also said that certain areas of the mainland will off-limits to new arrivals since there are already large numbers of migrants camps there.
Currently, around 90,000 migrants are living in more than 50 camps scattered across Greece’s mainland, five Aegean islands, and northern frontiers. According to the UN, 10,258 migrants arrived in Greece in September – the highest monthly total since 2016.
Between January and October of 2019, over 79,900 migrants have reached Europe. The vast majority, 45,500, came to Greece – a country that has never recovered from the global economic crisis in 2008.
Greece’s islands in the eastern Aegean sea, all of which are quite close to the Turkish coast, as well as Greece’s land border with Turkey in the northeast, are all preferred entry points into migrants who’re trying to make Europe their home.
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