Lesbos

Migrants walk on a dirt road following their arrival on a dinghy on a beach near the village of Skala Sykamias, after crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesvos, Thursday. [Costas Baltas/Reuters]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday urged Greek authorities to investigate recent attacks on reporters covering the arrival of migrants and refugees on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos.

More than 2,000 refugees and migrants, holding their belongings, gathered at the main port of the island of Lesvos on Tuesday afternoon, following a rumor that a passenger ferry would transport them to the mainland.

Unknown assailants on Sunday set fire on a migrant camp at a makeshift reception area for asylum-seekers at Skala Sykamias on the northern coast of Lesvos island in the eastern Aegean.
The Stage 2 transit camp had been set up by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to temporarily host asylum seekers landing on the island, before their transfer to the Moria hotspot.

A video footage that became viral on social media on March 2 which appeared to show Greek coastguard vessels confronting a dinghy carrying refugees to Greece, as a Syrian man was reportedly shot dead by police on the border.

A child died after being pulled from the sea when a boat capsized on Monday off the Greek island of Lesbos, Greek officials said, the first reported fatality since Turkey opened its border last week to let migrants reach Europe.   

Inhabitants of the island of Lesvos have gathered in several places, some preventing arriving migrants from disembarking and others preventing buses carrying migrants from reaching the Moria camp.

The migrants trying to breach Greece's land border may have failed, but, with the help of improving weather, arrivals on the islands are accelerating.

Sources have told Kathimerini that, from 7 to 11 a.m. Sunday, more than 400 migrants have arrived on the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos.

February 2016: Four platoons of riot police are dispatched to Kos from Athens. Dozens of residents on the eastern Aegean island block the road leading to the village of Pyli with rocks and fires, as they oppose the construction of a migrant identification and reception center in the area. They clash with police, who use tear gas to disperse the protesters.

The Hellenic Police (ELAS) has launched a probe into the violence that broke out on Wednesday on Lesvos and Chios during protests by residents against the presence of riot police officers sent to the islands to guard the sites where new migrant camps are being built.