Syrian refugee camps

Four Afghans who were sentenced to 10 years in prison for the fire at the Moria refugee camp on Lesvos in 2020 will be back in the dock on Monday for a second trial at the Mixed Jury Court of Appeal of the North Aegean.

The fire in the overcrowded camp, which housed four times its capacity, had started after riots on the night of September 8, 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The decision by the Migration and Asylum Ministry to proceed with the gradual closure of the Lavrio refugee camp due to objective criteria, namely the unsuitability of the site to continue hosting refugees, will also satisfy Turkey, which has constantly demanded its shutdown as it considers it a "training camp" for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants.

As the economy tanks and the number of Syrian refugees remains high, tensions between them and the host community are worsening.

The Moria camp on the Aegean island of Lesvos housed more than 10,000 people before being deliberately destroyed by two fires in September 2020

The Greek government will move swiftly with a tender for the construction of a new up-to-standard center for the reception and identification of migrants on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday.

A facility belonging to a locally based non-governmental organization called Stand By Me Lesvos was destroyed in a fire in the early hours of Tuesday, local media on the eastern Aegean island have reported.

As part of an ongoing effort to relieve some of the pressure on the islands of the eastern Aegean, 668 asylum seekers deemed vulnerable were transferred from the overcrowded Moria reception center on Lesvos to the Ritsona camp in Attica on the Greek mainland over the last few days, according to authorities.

Greek authorities moved more refugees and migrants from overcrowded island camps to the mainland on Tuesday as the government, facing a surge in new arrivals, said it would take a hardline on those who did not qualify for asylum.

A state of emergency was declared on the eastern Aegean island of Samos on Tuesday after a fire at its overcrowded refugee reception center on Monday night forced hundreds of migrants into the streets following interethnic clashes that left three Syrian men injured.

Greek authorities were evacuating an overcrowded camp for asylum-seekers on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, where a large fire broke out following clashes between residents.

Police said no injuries have been reported from Monday's fire at the Vathy camp, where more than 6,000 migrants and refugees live in facilities designed for a few hundred people.