Anti-migrant protests continue on Greek islands

Text by: RFI Follow

More than a thousand inhabitants of the Greek island of Lesbos gathered Thursday at the port of Mytilene, capital of the island, to demonstrate against a new migrant camp, in the aftermath of violent clashes with anti forces - riots that left many injured. The dispute is growing on the Aegean islands where more and more migrants are piling up. The Prime Minister calls for dialogue.

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Riot police units were dispatched Monday evening to the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios where the government of Athens is preparing to start the controversial construction of new camps for migrants. This provokes outrage from islanders and critics of the left opposition.

" Neither closed camp nor open camp on the islands, " chanted protesters who marched peacefully on the island of Lesbos on Thursday. Several merchant associations and unions close to the Greek Communist Party, which initiated the demonstration, also called for the strike to continue on the island. Stores were closed on Thursday for the second day in a row.

On Wednesday, a tense face-to-face meeting between residents and anti-riot forces lasted all day. In the evening about 2,000 people demonstrated outside a barracks where the police were located before trying to enter it. Riot police responded with tear gas while some residents fired their hunting rifles.

On the nearby island of Chios, hundreds of people also demonstrated on Thursday and continued the strike. The atmosphere was calmer on these islands Thursday after the violent incidents the day before. 2,000 people demonstrated against the construction of a new camp. 60 people were injured including most of the police from the anti-riot forces.

Greece has once again become the first gateway to Europe for asylum seekers in 2019. Faced with increasing migratory flows, the Conservative government announced in November that the overcrowded camps of Lesbos, Samos and Chios in the Aegean Sea will be closed this year. They will be replaced by new "closed" facilities with a capacity of at least 5,000 people each, which should be operational in mid 2020, according to the government.

A "chaotic" situation

More than 38,000 migrants are currently crammed into camps on the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos, whose total official capacity is 6,200. Construction work on new camps on Lesbos and Chios, with a official capacity of 7,000 people each, is scheduled to start this week.

" It is a situation which is completely chaotic from a humanitarian point of view and which is completely unworthy of the European Union since we find ourselves there with people who are simply going to park in two cities, who have no not the appropriate means to accommodate them. And we will simply wait for the situation to rot, ”comments François Gemenne, researcher at CERI, Center for International Research at Sciences Po and CNRS and specialist in migration.

Local authorities and residents have said that after five years on the front lines of the migration crisis affecting Europe, they are no longer willing to accept thousands of asylum seekers on their islands. Residents have threatened to block access to the sites of future camps to hinder their construction.

For the researcher, the Member States of the European Union do not show any solidarity between them and are not looking for any lasting solution. " We're just going to let the situation go bad because nobody wants to deal with it." It's a shame: these areas are the only areas in the world where Doctors Without Borders has to carry out specific missions to convince children and adolescents not to commit suicide. I think that is enough to show the extent of the health situation on these islands, on these camps which are almost today concentration camps , "he believes.

Call for dialogue

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a cabinet meeting Thursday that an investigation would be opened after denunciations of " disproportionate violence " by residents of islands where, he said, " the extreme elements must be isolated ". He called on the mayors of the islands to participate in a meeting on Thursday evening in Athens to appease the situation. " We must favor dialogue, the war needs a truce, " said Thursday Stigmatized Karmans, the mayor of Chios, stressing that he was going to go to Athens to participate in the meeting with the Prime Minister.

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• Greece
• International Migration

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