Conditions in the new migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos are becoming more difficult as winter approaches. Many still have to wash in the sea or with containers of water in "showers" they have built themselves.
Notis Mitarakis, the Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, has told InfoMigrants about plans to get tougher on migration, with closed camps, new asylum laws and tighter border controls. But he denied allegations of migrant pushbacks, saying Greece has acted within the law.
Two aid organizations have criticized the situation for migrants who live in island camps in the Aegean Sea. While Germany's Kindernothilfe condemns the evacuation of PIKPA camp on Lesbos for allegedly being inhumane, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) demands safety for migrants on Samos after the fire at the Vathy camp.
A fire broke outside the Vathy refugee and migrant camp the Greek island of Samos in the early hours of Monday. About 15 tents were reported to have burned down. However, no one was injured, according to information by the migration ministry.
Police have cleared the small community-run PIKPA migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The facility had been created to provide a safe haven for particularly vulnerable refugees and migrants. The nearly 80 people living at PIKPA will be transferred to the Kara Tepe camp.
Greek authorities on Thursday postponed the closure of a volunteer-run camp for vulnerable asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos. But they said they would carry out an evacuation "as soon as possible".
A mental health crisis among asylum seekers from the former Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos is worsening. InfoMigrants has learned that in the new tent facility, even young children are receiving psychiatric treatment and medication to deal with ongoing trauma.
Oxfam and the Greek Council for Refugees published a press statement on October 20 in which they declared that conditions in the migrant camp on Lesbos, set up after fire destroyed the original Moria camp, “are abysmal” and worse than at the previous camp.
A month ago, on September 12, the Greek government opened a new migrant camp on Lesbos, after Moria was destroyed by fire. The new camp is home to about 10,000. InfoMigrants went to meet some of them last week.
Several NGOs have launched a petition, calling on European leaders to drastically improve the treatment of migrants and refugees on the Greek islands. Their petition has been signed by over 165,000 people and organizations.
A group of over 160 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other humanitarian groups have written an open letter to the Greek authorities to reverse a decision to close two reception centers for migrants and refugees on the island of Lesbos.
A group of refugee activists is planning to fly an empty plane to the Greek island of Lesbos to try to pick up nearly 200 migrants. The group wants to bring the migrants to the Netherlands.