Boom as 300 refugees and migrants attain Greek island of Lesbos

Athens, Greece – Native authorities and human rights groups obtain expressed field after an estimated 300 refugees and migrants reportedly reached the Greek island of Lesbos in a 24-hour interval.

On Wednesday, the Greek daily Ekathimerini reported that eight boats carrying upwards of 300 americans had reached the Greek island since Tuesday.

Talking to Al Jazeera by phone, the situation of job of Lesbos Mayor Spiros Galinos confirmed an uptick in arrivals nonetheless became unable to give an accurate quantity.

« We now obtain heard from the police that there obtain been boats the earlier day and at the sleek time in Lesbos, » acknowledged Marios Andriotis, the mayor’s spokesperson.

Andriotis added the arrivals will exacerbate the already declining humanitarian instances on the island, where « the overpopulation in [Moria refugee camp] has been inflicting disorders both inside of the camp and commence air within the surrounding communities ».

Bigger than 5,300 refugees and migrants are at the second caught in Moria camp in Lesbos, where overcrowding, unlucky living instances and tensions with native Greek communities obtain introduced on field amongst human rights groups and abet organisations.

Moria is geared as a lot as accommodate around 2,000 americans. 

Most asylum seekers on Greek islands are barred from travelling to the mainland with out receiving permission from authorities. 

‘Slay the containment coverage’ 

Eva Cosse, a researcher at Human Rights Search, warned that the Greek authorities must composed « stop the containment coverage » on Greek islands because « it’s now not a sustainable reply ».

« We awe that now, as the weather becomes better, we’ll seek massive numbers of oldsters arriving, » she instructed Al Jazeera. « The distress is already problematic, nonetheless it surely could presumably well change into even worse. »

On the least thirteen,289 refugees and migrants obtain reached Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea to this level this year, fixed with the United Countries refugee company (UNHCR). Of that total, some four,286 obtain landed in Greece.

Some 489 obtain died or gone missing within the Mediterranean Sea to this level in 2018, fixed with the UNHCR.

In 2017, the Greek authorities purchased fifty eight,661 asylum functions, fixed with the migration ministry’s statistics. Since the commence of 2018, now not decrease than eight,815 asylum functions obtain been submitted.

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey struck a deal to stem the bolt of refugees and migrants to Europe.

That deal became lambasted by rights groups and critics who acknowledged it successfully grew to alter into Greece into a warehouse for asylum seekers. 

Attributable to the settlement, tens of thousands of oldsters fleeing war and financial devastation were stranded in Greece.

On March 17, a ship carrying refugees capsized whereas en route to Greece from Turkey. The Greek soar guard as a result of this reality chanced on sixteen bodies, amongst them teens.

In a press delivery published that identical day, Greece’s migration minister, Dimitris Vitsas, acknowledged there became an urgent need for a « reply » to the continuing humanitarian disaster. 

« We can not tolerate dropping teens within the Aegean Sea … the reply is to give protection to americans, to place in drive exact procedures and exact routes for migrants and refugees, to hit the human trafficking circuits, » Vitsas acknowledged within the commentary, as reported by Ekathimerini at the time.