Police clash with Greek islanders over new migrant camps

Residents want to stop new detention camps being built at key EU entry point for migrants

Riot police reinforcements arrive for monitoring the cconstruction of a new controversial migrant camps at the port of Mytilene on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, on February 25, 2020. Riot police were dispatched to the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios on Tuesday as the government ploughed ahead with the construction of controversial new migrant camps, officials said. At the harbours of both islands, where hundreds of local residents had gathered, police used tear gas to clear the way for security force reinforcements and construction machinery, a police source told AFP.
/ AFP / Manolis LAGOUTARIS

Riot police arrive on Lesbos, one of the Greek islands where new migrant camps are to be built. AFP

Feb 25, 2020

Clashes broke out overnight on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios, where residents tried to prevent the arrival of riot police and excavating machines to be used to build migrant detention camps.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds that gathered early on Tuesday to try to prevent police from disembarking from government-chartered ferries.
On Lesbos, protesters set fire to bins and used rubbish collection lorries to try to block off the port area.
Police on Chios also used tear gas and flash grenades. At least three people were treated in hospital for breathing difficulties caused by the use of tear gas, local officials said.
The government says it will move ahead with plans to build the new camps and promised to replace existing centres where severe overcrowding has worsened in recent months.

Migrants make their way through a makeshift encampment surrounding the Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Tuesday. Reuters

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Many island residents, as well as local authorities, vehemently argue the migrants and asylum seekers should be moved to the Greek mainland.
The standoff between police and protesters continued on Tuesday near the areas where the new camps are to be built, as police cordoned off areas around roadblocks set up over the past few days by demonstrators on the two islands.
"We understand there is a problem of trust that was created over the previous years," government spokesman Stelios Petsas told state-run TV. "But the closed facilities will be built and we are calling on the public to support this."
Mr Petsas said the government was also compelled to act due to heightened concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, arguing that proper health checks could not be carried out at the overcrowded camps.
Greece is the busiest entry point for migrants coming to the EU illegally, with most arriving on eastern Greek islands after travelling from the Turkish coast.

Under a 2016 agreement backed and funded by the EU, the movement of migrants is restricted to those islands until their asylum claims are processed.
About 60,000 migrants and refugees arrived on Greek islands last year, almost double the number recorded in 2018, according to the UN refugee agency.