Local residents of Lesbos and Chios have prevented a ship carrying building materials and machinery for the construction of migrant camps from docking. The Greek government plans to build "Closed and Controlled Access Centers" on both islands.
Greece has announced that 7,200 migrants stuck in temporary accommodation since the blaze at the Moria camp in September will be moved to permanent accommodation by September 2021. The European Commission will support the Greek government with the building project.
Four people have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus in the Vial refugee camp on Chios, bringing the total number of infections to five. An earlier case was detected last week.
A fire destroyed parts of one of Greece's largest migrant camps on the Aegean island of Chios. On Saturday a blaze tore through Vial camp destroying some accommodation and administrative facilities and leaving a few hundred homeless.
Germany is planning to take in up to 500 minors from the Greek islands in the next few weeks; starting with 50 unaccompanied children next week. Critics say this is too little, too late, given that tens of thousands of migrants and refugees remain in the overcrowded camps.
The civil liberties commission of the European Parliament has called on the EU to take immediate action to prevent an outbreak of Covid-19 among refugees and migrants in the overcrowded camps on the Greek islands.
Cruises across Europe have been suspended because of the coronavirus emergency. Migrant sea rescue organization Sea-Watch wants the empty cruise ships to be used to evacuate migrants from the Greek islands.
Migrants camps on the Greek islands have been put on lockdown for at least two weeks to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. No volunteers will be allowed in the camps, and school classes for migrant children have been suspended.
Several Greek islands, including Lesbos, have launched a labor stoppage following "extremely aggressive" clashes between police and anti-refugee protesters. Locals continue to call for an end to migrant camps.
Out of protest against government plans to build a network of detention camps on the Greek Aegean islands to replace overcrowded existing ones, hundreds of islanders on Thursday demonstrated in central Athens. They announced legal challenges and obstruction of the construction of the new facilities.
UNHCR is appealing to Greek authorities to increase efforts to put an end to "alarming" overcrowding and precarious conditions for migrants staying on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos, and Leros.
More protests have been planned for next week on the Greek island of Chios after the local municipal council of the eastern Aegean island rejected government proposals to open a new, closed pre-departure center for migrants on the island.