Europe's biggest asylum seeker camp of Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos, was designed for 3,000 refugees but houses 20,000. Given the coronavirus, evacuating it is paramount, says migration expert Gerald Knaus.
The EU Commission stated on Tuesday that it was working with the Greek authorities on an emergency plan to prepare for a potential outbreak of coronavirus in the overfilled migrant camps on the Greek islands.
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.
The aid agency Doctors Without Borders is extremely concerned about the threat that the new coronavirus presents to the overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. DW spoke with MSF's Florian Westphal.
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.
The Norwegian Refugee Council has warned that the coronavirus could decimate refugee communities around the world if more measures are not put in place to tackle the issue for these vulnerable groups.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has sharply criticized Greece for holding over 450 migrants on a navy vessel docked on the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos. The organization referred to a Syrian on board the ship who reported inhumane conditions.
Greece has said more than 1,600 people tried to enter the country from Turkey between Sunday and Monday morning. The Greek government, meanwhile, has decided to construct a new migrant camp to house arrested migrants who crossed into the country irregularly.
Members and supporters of German far-right groups have been involved in clashes with demonstrators on the Greek island of Lesbos. The right-wing activists have traveled to Greece, they say, to show solidarity with islanders and defend Europe's borders against migrants.
A fire has damaged a community center for migrants and asylum-seekers run by volunteers on Greece’s Lesbos island. The blaze occurred amid a tense standoff between the EU and Turkey over the fate of millions.
A group of migrants who landed on the Greek island of Lesbos in recent days has boarded a navy ship docked in Mytilene harbor. Reports suggest that the migrants will be transferred on the ship to the Greek mainland, where they will be held in detention.