Lesbos

Between September 2019 and January 2020, the government transferred 14,750 people to the mainland, even as 36,000 new arrivals crossed the Aegean to Greece from Turkey, according to UNHCR data.

Northern Aegean Regional Governor Kostas Moutzouris said he was "surprised" by the Greek government's sudden announcement on Monday that it is speeding up the creation of new, closed migrant centers on the islands.

Greece plans to accelerate the creation of detention centres on its outlying islands in the Aegean Sea after a backlash against overcrowded camps by some migrants and nearby residents.

Construction of closed pre-departure migrant centers on Greece's eastern Aegean islands will begin in March, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said on Monday, adding that the new facilities are expected to operate by summer.

The regional governor of the Northern Aegean, Kostas Moutzouris submitted a new call on Wednesday to declare a state of emergency on three islands, following two days of protest marches by asylum seekers demanding better living conditions and a quicker asylum procedure, and attacks by extremists in Lesvos.

The center-left Movement for Change coalition (KINAL) has attacked Greece's conservative government saying that its poor handling of the migration crisis is responsible for the escalating tension on the eastern Aegean islands.

Migrants stranded on Lesvos protested against the dreadful conditions at the Moria reception center and the slow processing of asylum requests for a second day Tuesday as the government turned down a request for a state of emergency to be declared on the eastern Aegean island.

Asylum-seekers demonstrated on the Greek island of Lesvos for a second day to protest increasingly dire living conditions in and around the island's massively overcrowded migrant camp and delays in Greece's asylum application process.

Authorities will reportedly investigate whether the violence that broke out during Monday's march on the Aegean island of Lesvos by hundreds of angry migrants and refugees from the notorious Moria camp was deliberate and not just a response to the presence of police blocking the road to the island's capital.

Residents on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos on Tuesday barged into the General Secretariat for Aegean and Island policy in the capital of Mytilini to demand a response from Athens to overcrowding at the Moria refugee and migrant camp following tension the previous day at a rally by camp residents protesting substandard living conditions and asylum processing delays.