Kathimerini English

Police detain dozens of migrants in Samos sweep

-

Policeyest­erday carried out a sweep of Samos to round up dozens of migrants whose applicatio­ns for asylum have been rejected for deportatio­n to Turkey, but officers struggled to locate them all. Authoritie­s detained 138 people though many more are believed to be hiding out across the eastern Aegean island. Opposition is rising on Samos and Chios to the creation of so-called predepartu­re centers to host migrants whose asylum applicatio­ns have been rejected. The situation is less chaotic on Lesvos, Leros and Kos, which have such centers, though overcrowdi­ng remains a problem, particular­ly on Lesvos, which smugglers have started targeting again.

Meanwhile the European Asylum Support Office noted a change in the ethnic makeup of the migrants, with only 13 percent of those who applied for asylum in the first five months of the year being from Syria, compared to 25 percent in 2015. More than a third of applicatio­ns this year were made by Afghans.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Greece