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The new refugee camps should be nicer, more modern and more efficient. But on Lesbos and Chios people will also spend this winter in makeshift tents and containers.
Brussels / Athens – Asylum seekers on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios cannot move to new refugee camps as planned by winter.
Around 2550 people will continue to live there in tents and containers. The construction of the accommodations has not even started, as is evident from a response from the EU Commission to questions from the German Press Agency.
After all, the new reception camps on Kos and Leros are due to open this Saturday. The center on the island of Samos started operating in September.
Bearings only exist on paper
The situation is particularly difficult in the approaching winter on Lesbos, where around 2200 migrants still live in the transition camp Kara Tepe (also: Mavrovouni). The camp was set up in no time at all a year ago after a major fire had almost completely destroyed the notorious Moria reception camp. The Greek migration minister, Notis Mitarakis, announced in the spring that a new camp would be completed by winter, but this camp – just like on Chios – still only exists on paper.
“The tendering process for the facilities on Lesvos and Chios is still ongoing,” says the EU Commission. There is currently still a legal dispute that the municipality of Chios has initiated on the island of the same name. Lawsuits are pending on Lesbos as well. Before the construction work begins, the highest Greek administrative court has to decide.
Transitional camp “worse than Moria”
The EU Commission emphasized that it would work with the authorities to ensure that all the needs of the people in the transition camp were met. Mitarakis had given assurances that nobody would have to spend the winter in tents. “The replacement of all tents with containers and residential units is ongoing and is expected to be completed shortly.”
Aid organizations repeatedly complain that the interim camp on Lesbos is even worse than Moria. Athens denies this and points out that last year in Moria, 20,000 people perished their existence under poor circumstances, while the current camp with a capacity of 8,000 places only accommodates 2,200 people. The reason for this is that the government has brought many children, pregnant women and the sick to the mainland. dpa
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