Transferring 2,380 refugees and migrants from overcrowded detention centres and camps on Greek Aegean islands holding more than 38,000 will be done “in strict observance of regulations for the protection of public health”during the COVID-19 pandemic, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis told state television.
That came after the discovery of 150 cases among refugees and migrants being housed in a hotel in the town of Kranidi, and worries the virus could spread in the camps on the islands although no cases had been found so far.
More than 1,000 migrants had been scheduled as of April 25 to leave the Moria camp on Lesbos, a facility the BBC called “the worst in the world,” but now they are expected to be moved out in small groups over the coming days, said Kathimerini.
The migrants will be transferred to hotels on the mainland and will remain in 14-day quarantine as a precaution against the virus, Mitarakis said.
There are another 5,800 migrants housed in 55 hotels across the country, with Greece holding more than 100,000. Mitarakis noted, however, that a subsidised hotel program for migrants will end this year.
SOURCE: National Herald
