Greece to build permanent migrant centre to replace destroyed Moria camp

Prime minister says new centre would be ‘opportunity’ to reset migrant arrivals policy

A woman gives milk to her newborn baby as refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp find shelter in a warehouse near a new temporary camp, on the island of Lesbos, Greece (REUTERS)

Greece will build a permanent migrant centre on the island of Lesbos to replace the notoriously overcrowded refugee camp razed to the ground by a fire last week, the country’s prime minister has promised.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday the new reception centre would be a chance to reset the policy behind handling migrant arrivals and called for closer European involvement.

The squalid and overcrowded camp in Moria went up in flames last week, leaving over 12,000 people without shelter and sleeping rough without proper sanitation or access to food and water amid the coronavirus pandemic for days.

“We want to turn this problem into an opportunity,” said Mr Mitsotakis during a news conference. “Europe should be a lot more involved in the management of the new centre wherever we finally decide it should be.

He appeared to dismiss protests by Lesbos residents who have opposed the creation of a new centre as well as by migrants demanding to be resettled away from the island.

“I want to say with absolute certainty that there will be a permanent reception and identification centre - I want to send this message in all directions,” he added.

Greek authorities have resettled hundred of the homeless refugees in a temporary new tent facility outside the main port of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos. In a concerning development, they identified what Mr Mitsotakis said were “dozens” of cases of Covid-19.

Before the fire, the camp had been placed under quarantine as there were 35 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the camp, but people were unable to quarantine or practice hygiene effectively without shelter and resources.

Officials had already been concerned about the potential for an uncontrolled spread of the virus from Moria before it burned down.

Government spokesperson Stelios Petsas told reporters on Monday: “We expect that in the next three to four days all will be housed, a bit less than the (total number) roughly 12,000 homeless.”

Some 400 unaccompanied minors have already been relocated from the island to the Greek mainland for possible resettlement in other European countries.

Germany is considering taking in thousands of refugees from the Moria camp as a one-off gesture, Bild newspaper reported on Monday.

Citing government and EU sources, Bild said Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel was leaning towards taking in more refugees despite officials being reluctant to move unilaterally, saying a European agreement is needed to disperse the refugees across the EU.

But Social Democrat Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told a news conference earlier that Germany had to be ready to play a role in taking in refugees, though this could only be a stepping stone to finding a Europe-wide way of housing refugees arriving at the continent’s borders.

“It can’t stand as it is now, where each time we decide on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Additional reporting by agencies