Greece moves migrants from islands’ overcrowded camps

GREECE has begun transferring hundreds of migrants from chronically overcrowded camps on islands in the Aegean Sea.

An official at a camp in Moria, in western Greece, said: “A hundred people were transferred on Friday morning from Moria camp on Lesbos and another camp on that island to that of Filippiada at Ipiros, in the mainland’s north-west, with a view to transferring a total of 2,000 people by the end of next week, 500 on Monday.”

On Monday, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned of the health consequences brought on by chronic overcrowding at camps on Lesbos, adding its personnel had seen multiple cases of suicide attempts and

self-harm. Government data showed the same day that Lesbos was housing more than 11,000 refugees and migrants, including nearly 9,000 in Moria, almost triple the nominal capacity of Europe’s largest camp.

The Samos Volunteers group said meanwhile in a social media post that 350 people had been transferred from that island to camps on the mainland since the start of the week.

“The people transferred to the mainland were families, young persons, single men and people that had been there for a few months up to two-and-a-half years,” the group told AFP, adding that “this transfer was long overdue.”

The Samos camp had been bursting at the seams, housing 3,600 people at a facility designed for 650, according to official figures.