Europe

Home page

Europe

Greece to open 'hotspot' migrant centres under EU pressure

16 February 2016 02:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Greece will open four "hotspot" migrant registration centres in time for an EU summit this week despite local protests, as Athens comes under intense pressure to control the massive influx to Europe, a source said Monday, APA reports quoting AFP.

The centres will open by Wednesday on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Leros and Samos, which have been struggling to cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees landing from Turkey in flimsy boats, a government source told AFP.

The centres were supposed to open late last year but have faced repeated delays.

Defence Minister Panos Kammenos is expected to visit the hotspots of Leros, Chios and Lesbos on Tuesday following a news conference in Athens.

Each facility will have enough prefab housing to accommodate 1,000 migrants, who will spend three days being registered, having their fingerprints taken and being sorted between those eligible for asylum in the European Union and those who face eventual deportation.

One aim will be to help spot jihadists using the migrant crisis to enter Europe -- a pressing concern after two of the men who carried out November's attacks in Paris sneaked into Europe via Greece, posing as refugees.

A fifth centre, on the island of Kos, will be set up slightly later, the source said.

Opposition from local authorities and residents, complaining that the influx has damaged their vital tourism industry, has caused delays to the construction work.

Riot police Sunday fired tear gas at protesters on the resort island who are angry over plans to open the centre.

Protests are also delaying the delivery of a refugee relocation centre near Thessaloniki, but a similar centre near Athens has been completed, the defence ministry said Monday.

The EU on Monday said it was awarding Greece an additional 12.7 million euros ($14.3 million) for migrant and refugee accommodation facilities.

The funds "will help Greece to reach the objective of increasing its reception capacity to 50,000 places, as agreed at the Western Balkans leaders' meeting of 25 October 2015," EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a statement.