The Greek island of Lesbos and Chios witnessed clashes between hundreds of its residents and the Greek police, in protest against the construction of new migrant camps.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirmed at the end of last week - and after weeks of fruitless negotiations with local authorities - that the construction of the camps project would be implemented despite the opposition of the residents of the two islands.
And officials and residents of the two islands told the government that, after five years of being on the front lines of the European migration crisis, "they are not ready to receive hundreds of asylum seekers."
The protesters blocked the roads surrounding the port with their cars, tractors, and garbage containers, prompting the police to fire tear gas to the crowd.
The local press in Greece stated that the police intervened to prevent citizens on Medelli Island who also tried to block the port road, coinciding with the arrival of a ship carrying police machines and reinforcements to build the camp on the island.
Inhumane plan
Earlier, the British Guardian newspaper said that the Greek authorities' plan to deal with the increasing numbers of Syrian refugees is inhumane and will be a failure.
The newspaper pointed out in a report to the Greek journalist Apostolis Fotiades that the authorities are seeking to establish huge detention centers for refugees in the Greek islands and camps in the main cities in light of the islands failure to absorb the influx of Syrian refugees from Turkey, which was rejected by the local population.
According to Fotiades, the Greek authorities transferred more than 14,000 Syrian refugees from the Greek islands to the center during the past months from September 2019 to January 2020, and that at least 36,000 Syrian refugees arrived on the shores of Greece during the same period.
The Greek journalist added that the humanitarian conditions in the refugee camps in islands such as Lesbos, Choss and Samos are very poor, and that at least 42 thousand refugees live in these infamous camps, which were designed to accommodate no more than a few thousand people.
He pointed out that the agreement on refugees signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 made the islands a dam that prevents the flow of refugees into Greece, as it allows the return of refugees who were not granted asylum in Greece to Turkey except for those who crossed the islands and arrived inside the country.