Gavriil Sakellaridis

The previous leftist government bears a "huge responsibility" for the overcrowding and dire living conditions inside Greece's migrant reception centres, the head of Amnesty International's local chapter said in an interview published Thursday.

Overcrowding, poor sanitation and security lapses are putting refugees and migrants being kept at the reception and processing centers of Vathy on Samos and Moria on Lesvos at risk, Amnesty International said on Monday following a visit to the facilities on the two eastern Aegean islands.

Concerns are rising about conditions at reception centers for migrants on the islands of the eastern Aegean amid delays in much-needed infrastructure upgrades and increasingly cramped conditions, with reports of a spike in cases of mental health problems.

The former spokesman of ruling SYRIZA Gavriil Sakellaridis has been appointed as the new director of rights watchdog Amnesty International's Greece section.

The 37-year-old economist, who also ran for Athens mayor in 2014, will be filling a post that has been empty for about three months following the resignation of AI Greece's former director, Heracles-Spyridon Aktypis.

PM Alexis Tsipras announced a Greek government reshuffle on Friday afternoon, expected since an earlier vote in Parliament this week, replacing “dissident” minister Panagiotis Lafazanis with MP Panos Skourletis at the production reconstruction ministry.

Greece’s central bank on Sunday is expected to request that the European Central Bank raise the ceiling on the Emergency Liquidity Assistance funds for battered Greek banks.

The International Monetary Fund lifted the stakes in Greece’s stalled debt talks on Thursday by pulling its delegation out of negotiations in Brussels. The surprise move came as the EU warned Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to stop gambling with Greece’s future and make crucial but painful reforms (such as sacrificing pensions) that would avert a devastating default.

The Greek government submitted a three-page budget proposal to its creditors in Brussels in a bid to unlock bailout funds, two international officials with direct knowledge of the discussions said.

Representatives of Greece?s creditors were on Monday awaiting revised proposals from Athens as international pressure mounted for a reform deal, with US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushing for swift action to clinch an agreement.

A high-level Greek delegation has traveled to Brussels in the hope of finding common ground between Athens and its lenders before Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in Belgium on Wednesday.