Thousands of migrants at overcrowded migrant camps on the island of Lesbos in Greece should return to Turkey, the Greek government announced a day after a deadly fire broke out at the Moria migrant camp, according to the Deutsche Welle English service.
By the end of 2020, Athens wants 10,000 migrants to return to Turkey, in a bid to ease pressure on the overcrowded camps, the government said in a statement following a four-hour Cabinet meeting.
The move signals a significant change in policy as conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis takes a more hard-line approach to the migrant situation in the country.
In a statement, the Athens government said the 10,000 would be an increase from the “1,805 returned in the 4.5 years under the previous [left-wing] Syriza government.”
Mitsotakis announced further measures such as more naval patrols in the Aegean, closing centers for migrants refused asylum and plans to overhaul the asylum system, including building camps for those deemed “illegal” or who have been refused asylum.
The meeting convened after a fire broke out at the Moria camp on Sunday, in which one woman died and 17 were injured. Moria is Europe’s largest migrant camp, which has facilities for 3,000 people but houses around 13,000.
However, aid agencies argued that the solution should be EU-wide. Aid group Oxfam said that Sunday’s fatal fire was a consequence of the EU’s migration policy.
“People arriving in Greece should be relocated to safe accommodation across the EU, not crammed into dangerous spaces where their life is at risk,” said Renata Rendon, Oxfam’s head of mission in Greece.
European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said on Monday, “The increased arrivals in Greece over the past weeks have put an immense strain on an already flawed system and are creating unsustainable conditions as we have already had the opportunity to point out in the past.”
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos will visit Greece and Turkey this week with the interior ministers of Germany and France to discuss the crisis.
Earlier in September, the German government called on Greece to repatriate migrants to Turkey in addition to pressuring Turkey to honor its 2016 EU-Turkey pact allowing visa-free travel inside the EU for Turkish citizens in exchange for receiving migrants who illegally enter Europe via Turkey.