The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic, sounded the alarm once again last week about the reception of boat refugees on Greek islands near the coast of Turkey. After a five-day visit to the islands of Lesbos and Samos, she said she was shocked by the terrible conditions in which thousands of people are staying there. Athens was reprimanded due to the ‘explosive situation’ in the camps on the islands.
Mijatovic urgently called on the new right-wing Greek government to take action. There is a severe shortage of medical care in the camps. People have to wait for hours before they can use the toilet or get food. In recent months, more refugees have been arriving on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The reception camps cannot handle the influx and are overcrowded. More than 34,000 people are waiting there (some for years!) for their asylum applications to be processed, while there is only space for a maximum of 6,300 migrants.
This has contributed to the migration debate flaring up again in Greece. Among the Greek population, xenophobia has increased in recent years, and in the recent elections, the right-populist party ND won a majority and sent the leftist Syriza government home. In addition, the country has once again become the main entry point to Europe for refugees in recent months. In previous years, Spain and Italy had taken over that role.
The increasing flow of migrants posed problems for the new Greek government. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received the green light last Friday from parliament after a marathon session for a new asylum law. This law allows authorities to expedite the processing of asylum procedures. Additionally, the government can return migrants who do not qualify for international protection to Turkey more quickly. Greece will henceforth grant asylum to migrants less easily.
During the debate in the Greek parliament, conservative Prime Minister Mitsotakis clashed repeatedly with his predecessor, the radical-left Alexis Tsipras. The Syriza leader accused his successor of spreading ‘extremist rhetoric’ and lies about the ‘too lenient migration policy’ of the previous Syriza government.
Mitsotakis said that Greece cannot accommodate tens of thousands of refugees without an efficient system. This law gives us a tool that protects refugees but prevents us from throwing the gates wide open for everyone, he said.
The Mitsotakis team has also received criticism from aid organizations in recent weeks due to its migration policy. Among others, its plan to send back about 10,000 asylum seekers to Turkey by the end of this year has drawn criticism. However, the Greek government continues relocating migrants from the overcrowded reception camps on the islands. This weekend, about 800 migrants are being brought from Lesbos to the Greek mainland. They will be housed in hotels, many of which are empty now that the high season is over.
The Greek government plans to relocate 5,000 migrants from the islands to the mainland in the coming two weeks. In the Moria camp alone on Lesbos, nearly 15,000 migrants live, while there is space for only 3,000. At the beginning of September, the Greek government announced measures due to the overcrowded refugee camps, which are plagued by violence. There are also major problems with housing, medical care, and hygiene.
Almost 44,000 people have entered Greece via the sea from Turkey this year. Most of them originally come from Afghanistan or Syria.