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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 3 sepTember 2019
1,500 asylum-seekers being transported to Greek mainland

By COSTAS KANTOURIS tion of those whose asylum
Associated Press applications have been
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) rejected, and to abolish
— About 1,500 asylum- the second-stage review
seekers were being trans- of asylum applications.
ported from Greece’s east- The government also an-
ern Aegean island of Les- nounced increased border
bos to the mainland Mon- surveillance, to activate
day as part of government a maritime surveillance
efforts to tackle massive system and to bolster the
overcrowding in refugee coast guard’s fleet with 10
camps and a recent spike new speedboats.
in the number of people ar- Hundreds of people con-
riving from the nearby Turk- tinue to head to Greece
ish coast. from Turkey each week,
A ship carrying 635 people, despite a 2016 European
mostly Afghan families, Union-Turkey deal that re-
from Lesbos reached the stricts new arrivals to the is-
northern port city of Thes- lands pending deportation
saloniki Monday evening. unless they are successful in
From there, authorities said, their asylum application. Refugees and migrants arrive at the port of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Monday, Sept. 2, 2019.
the asylum-seekers were The EU-Turkey deal and Associated Press
being bussed to a camp the backlog of asylum measures which were an- sary funds” to improve liv- board was seized by Italian
in Nea Kavala in northern cases has led to a large nounced by the Greek ing conditions in the camps authorities after it entered
Greece that already holds bottleneck on the east- authorities over the week- on the islands. Italian waters and headed
another 1,000 Syrian mi- ern Aegean islands, where end,” she added, noting Elsewhere in the Mediter- for the port of Pozzallo, in
grants. asylum-seekers are housed the Commission had made ranean, a charity boat Sicily, in defiance of a gov-
Abdul Tamim Azimi, 24, in massively overcrowded available “all the neces- with some 100 migrants on ernment ban.q
from Afghanistan said he camps whose conditions
spent nine dire months in aid groups frequently criti-
Moria with his parents and cize. In general only those
two siblings, and was look- deemed to be in vulner-
ing forward to the new able groups, such as the
camp. elderly, very young and
“The situation was very people with serious health
bad,” he told The Associ- problems are eligible for
ated Press. rehousing on the mainland.
“Every day there were Official figures released
fights among the people Friday showed that more
living there. For food, for than 10,000 people were
water, for anything. Now being held in Lesbos in a
we are going to the camp facility with a capacity of
and we will see.” 3,000, while there was also
A second ship carrying severe overcrowding on
about 800 people from Les- the islands of Chios, Leros,
bos was expected in Thes- Kos and Samos.
saloniki early Tuesday. “We do note with concern
The Citizens Protection Min- the large number of arrivals
istry said a total of around that was reported in Lesbos
1,000 of those being trans- in Greece which of course
ferred will be housed in only serves to put addi-
Nea Kavala, where they tional pressure on a system
will be staying in tents until that’s under strain,” Euro-
the end of the month, after pean Commission spokes-
which they will be trans- woman Natasha Bertaud
ferred to a new camp un- told reporters Monday at
der construction. The rest the commission’s daily
will be housed in other fa- briefing in Brussels.
cilities in northern Greece. Migration Commissioner
The transfer was part of Dimitris Avramopoulos and
decisions made during a his services are in “direct
national security meet- and regular contact” with
ing Prime Minister Kyria- both the Greek and the
kos Mitsotakis convened Turkish authorities at po-
Saturday, after nearly 600 litical and technical level,
people arrived on Lesbos in she said.
more than a dozen boats “We will continue working
in the space of an hour with the Greek authorities
Thursday. to improve the situation on
The national security coun- the island and stand ready
cil meeting also decided to discuss and support the
to speed up the deporta- additional emergency