PM urges calm in meeting with island officials over migrant camps

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday chaired a meeting between government officials and local authority officials from the eastern and northern Aegean in a bid to break a deadlock over the construction of new migrant detention centers on five islands.

The meeting comes after three days of protests on the islands, which became particularly violent on Tuesday and Wednesday on Lesvos and Chios and left dozens of police officers and island residents injured.

"I would like to express my regret at the scenes we all witnessed. Police officers and state functionaries who wear the national emblem and they are also the kid next door," Mitsotakis told the assembled officials, referring to one incident when a group of enraged locals attacked eight riot officers in the hotel where they were staying on Chios.

"At the same time, though, incidents of excessive force...