Refugee shelter burns as Greece rolls out new asylum restrictions

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Lesbos Island (Greece), March 8: A fire engulfed a refugee shelter on the island of Lesbos as Greece announced further restrictions towards asylum seekers in response to a migration surge enabled by Turkey.

The fire on Saturday at One Happy Family, a Swiss-operated family care centre for refugees just outside the island capital, came after violence at the weekend directed at aid groups and journalists on Lesbos. “The school building has a lot of damage, we can’t say more at the moment,” a source among the operators said.

“The fire brigade is there, our team on the ground as well,” they added. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Over 1,700 migrants have landed on Lesbos and four other

Aegean islands from Turkey over the past week, adding to the 38,000 already crammed into abysmal and overstretched refugee centres.

The new surge has ramped up already high tensions on Lesbos, an island that has been on the migration frontline for years. Frustration exploded into violence last weekend with mobs setting up roadblocks, attacking cars carrying NGO workers and beating journalists.

Earlier Saturday, the Greek migration minister announced plans for two new camps to house asylum-seekers who arrived after March 1, when Turkey announced it would no longer prevent people from trying to cross into the European Union.

On the land border with Turkey, tens of thousands of asylum-seekers have been trying to break through for a week. There have been numerous exchanges of tear gas and stones with Greek riot police.

Turkey has accused

Greece of injuring many migrants and killing at least five, a claim Athens denies. “We want to build two closed centres in (the northern region of) Serres and the greater Athens area with 1,000 places,” migration minister Notis Mitarachi said.

“We need the backing of local communities. We cannot leave all (these) people on the islands,” he said. Mitarachi also said state support for refugees would be drastically reduced, and that they would be asked to leave camps after securing protected status.

“Accommodation and benefits for those granted asylum will be interrupted within a month. From then on, they will have to work for a living. This makes our country a less attractive destination for migration flows,” the minister said.