Austria to send Greece 181 containers to house asylum seekers, provide healthcare amid pandemic

The Austrian government has agreed to send Greece 181 containers to be used for the accommodation of migrants and refugees and as mobile healthcare facilities, following a request by Athens, according to the ministry of migration on Thursday.

Greece has had to place two camps on lockdown after 21 migrants tested positive for Covid-19.

"The cooperation of the two governments aims at the timely preparation for dealing with possible consequences from the combination of the migration crisis and the pandemic," the ministry said in a press release, after a video conference on Wednesday between Alternate Migration and Asylum Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos and Austria's Interior Minister Karl Nehammer.

Koumoutsakos said the containers will meet the needs of housing and healthcare of asylum-seekers. During the video conference the ministers agreed that the containers...