ATHENS, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Greek government said it wants to send 10,000 migrants back to Turkey by the end of 2020, following an emergency cabinet meeting.
Athens would increase the rate from the “1,805 returned in the 4.5 years under the previous Syria government” of left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras, a cabinet statement said, a day after a deadly fire at a migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
About 12,000 migrants and refugees are holed up in Moria camp in Lesbos, a collection of tents and shipping containers, according to data released by the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
The government aims to move at least 3,000 people from its islands to the mainland by the end of October, the official said.
More than 9,000 people arrived in Greece in August, the highest number in the three years since the European Union and Ankara implemented a deal to shut off the Aegean migrant route.
More than 8,000 people have arrived in September, according to the UNHCR.
Nearly a million refugees, many of them fleeing war in Syria, crossed from Turkey to Greece’s eastern Aegean islands in 2015.
Human rights groups have long criticised the poor conditions at the refugee camps.
The announcement comes a day after a fire gutted eight container homes in the Moria camp on Lesbos and triggered rioting by camp residents who accused emergency responders of taking too long to arrive.
Authorities dispersed the crowds, which included children, with tear gas.
Rights groups have blamed the blaze, which killed at least one woman, on the dire overcrowding at the camp, which currently houses about 13,000 people, despite having a capacity of just 3,000.
Reports on Sunday said that a child was also killed in the fire. Seventeen injured residents, including two children, were transferred to a hospital on the island after the blaze, the health ministry said on Monday.
Greece is hosting more than 70,000 refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria, who have fled their countries since 2015 and crossed over from neighbouring Turkey.
Around 10,000 people had landed on Lesbos in the past three months alone, according to the Greek government.
Several aid groups working at the island camps have called on the government to immediately evacuate all vulnerable people, including unaccompanied children, who are currently living in Moria in unsanitary conditions with few toilets and showers and few doctors.
“We are constantly bracing ourselves for a new tragedy,” said Dimitra Kalogeropoulou, the International Rescue Committee’s Greece director.
Boris Cheshirkov, the UN refugee agency’s spokesman in Greece, has described the situation as “critical”.
The European Commission supports the plan to transfer those living in the island camps to the mainland and was ready to provide additional support, according to spokeswoman Mina Andreeva, who described the fire as a “truly tragic event”.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government backed Greek efforts to increase the number of migrant deportations to Turkey.
