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.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has renewed calls on Germany and other countries to take in migrants and refugees currently stuck in Greece. At the same time, his government plans to expedite deportations in the new year.
The refugee crisis in Greece continues to intensify. Local residents on the island of Chios staged a roadblock near the Vial reception center to protest against the camp's overcrowding on Monday.
The constant influx of refugees and migrants by boat to the shores of Greece's eastern Aegean islands from Turkey continues at an alarming rate this week, with close to 700 people arriving on Lesbos, Chios, and Samos in the past 48 hours.
Greece is set to open two new "transit camps" on the mainland to speed up transfers of migrants and refugees from its islands. The initiative is an attempt to reduce overcrowding in the camps on Lesbos, Chios and Samos.
Two new facilities are set to open soon in a bid to ease the pressure on the overcrowded refugee camps on the north eastern Aegean islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros.
Migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Chios are living in dire conditions. Even though the refugee camp is not as overcrowded as the Moria camp on Lesbos, migrants are also sleeping in tents because all containers in the camp are full. Given the freezing winter temperatures and long waiting times for asylum interviews, they are facing a long and harsh winter.
Hundreds of migrants and refugees, mainly from Afghanistan and Africa, are stuck on Chios island in the Northern Aegean Sea. Local authorities want to close the refugee camp.
Greece is being criticized by human rights groups over the living condition of migrants as it struggles to accommodate a growing number of people entering the country.
In a move designed to decongest its overcrowded island camps, the government in Athens is trying to defuse its migrants emergency - an act that was criticized by humanitarian NGO's. The Greek parliament have approved a new law designed to speed up the country's notoriously slow asylum process for refugees and migrants in an effort to ease the pressure on overcrowded camps on the North Eastern Aegean islands.
Amnesty International in Greece has called migrant camps on Lesvos and Chios ''an open wound'' for the European Union and human rights.
Greece is betting on the quality of its asylum service processes at the first step as it continues to try to deal with a huge backlog of applications from thousands of migrants and refugees stranded on the mainland and the North Eastern Aegean island. The Greek authorities have come under increased pressure from human rights groups and the EU to speed up often lengthy bureaucratic processes which mean asylum applications can take months to complete.