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Greece: tens of thousands of asylum seekers transferred

In Greece, by the end of the year, 20,000 asylum seekers are expected to be transferred from the overcrowded Aegean islands to the mainland. Arrivals from neighboring Turkey have been daily on these islands since this summer and Greece is once again the main gateway for asylum seekers to Europe.

The planned transfers should not be able to sustainably relieve the saturated reception camps of the Aegean islands. At present, there are still more than 35,000 asylum seekers living in extremely precarious conditions on a handful of Aegean islands, starting with Lesbos where Moria, the largest refugee camp, is located. Europe.

Even if the Greek government does implement the 20,000 announced transfers by the end of December, there will still be a much larger number of asylum seekers on these islands than is possible with the theoretical reception capacities. .

The situation is so bad that Athens announced at the end of November to close three of these camps next year: Moria, become the symbol of the neglect of Greek and European policies, Chios and Samos. Instead, the Greek government plans to build closed centers, in other words prisons.

What is the situation for asylum seekers recently transferred to the continent?

What might be good news for these vulnerable populations - leaving crowded camps where living conditions are abysmal - is not always good.

For example, in camp Vagiohori, a camp lost in the middle of nowhere, where there is - for the time being - neither doctors nor school for children, and which has about a thousand asylum seekers, a 25-year-old Afghan pharmacist by profession lives there. According to him, the conditions of life there were finally no better than on the island of Samos from where he had been transferred, despite the new prefabricated.

Some lucky ones are housed in apartments or hotel rooms in town, close to structures that can help them, but it's a minority of them.

400 asylum seekers to France

This announcement from France is little more than a symbolic drop of water in the face of the migratory pressure that weighs on Greece today.

Greece, which, in addition to proactive policies at the national level, is in desperate need of a real major action coordinated at European level. And this, in order to change the image of a continent that fails, or does not want to succeed, to treat with dignity asylum seekers who come to its doors.

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