Greece moves migrants from Lesbos to ease overcrowing

Описание: (30 Sep 2019) About 250 migrants boarded a ferry on Greece's eastern Aegean island of Lesbos and headed to the mainland on Monday as part of government efforts to tackle massive overcrowding in a refugee camp there following a deadly fire.
Signalling a shift in policy, Greece's government said it would accelerate efforts to move thousands of refugees and migrants from Aegean Sea islands to the mainland a day after a fire at the Moria camp left one asylum-seeker dead and 17 injured.
More than 12,000 people — more than four times the site's capacity — are currently housed in the camp and just outside its perimeter following a spike in migrant arrivals over the summer.
Police said the fire gutted eight container homes in the camp and triggered rioting by camp residents who were dispersed by riot police using stun grenades.
No sign of arson was found at the site — contradicting earlier statements by authorities on the island who said the fires may have been started deliberately by camp dwellers.
Government officials unveiled plans on Monday to evenly distribute camps nationally in all 13 regional authorities, mostly on the mainland, replacing a three-year-old practice of containing new arrivals on Lesbos and four other eastern islands facing the Turkish coast.
Other decisions include the creation of detention centres for migrants who do not have the right to apply for asylum, high-level contacts between the Greek and Turkish governments to restart deportations to Turkey, and continued military support for coast guard patrols in the eastern Aegean.
The containment policy on the Greek islands was part of measures under a 2016 agreement between the European Union and Turkey to fight illegal immigration into Europe.
The interior ministers of France and Germany are due to visit Greece and Turkey this week with outgoing EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, a Greek.
In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government backed Greek efforts to increase the number of migrant deportations to Turkey.

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