Greece's government has been heavily criticized by the opposition party New Democracy for their handling of the migrant problem on the island of Chios. Angry groups of local residents are preparing to stage of protest to rally against the creation of a new pre-departure center
Local residents will stage a protest rally on Thursday calling for the "immediate relocation of all the migrants" and against the creation of a pre-departure center for migrants similar to those which exist on Lesvos and Rhodes which are used to house people awaiting deportation to Turkey.Tensions are as high as ever on the island with thousands of migrants living in squalid conditions in the current overcrowded reception centers at Souda and VI.AL.
European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu will visit the island to evaluate the situation with work not yet started on the new 'closed detention facility' which is aimed at accelerating the return to Turkey of those migrants not eligible for asylum."The SYRIZA-ANEL government even up to now has failed to do the minimum necessary to manage the migrant issue on the island; instead it simply keeps loading the local authorities with the burden and allowing the NGOs to manage things," said a strongly-worded media statement by the island's New Democracy office.The statement added: "New Democracy has a very specific proposal for the refugee crisis, which has been published since 03/06/2016 (National Refugee-Migration Project www.nd.gr) but the government is still deaf to any other proposal than its own insane strategy of "seeing and doing".
"Their tactics of blaming everyone else except themselves has long been defeated! Still now they cannot grasp the concept that they themselves are the government, not the opposition; that they must define the country's policy and strategy. If they really do not really want to rule and implement policies for the benefit of the country, let them finally go to the brink rather than shirk responsibilities and put the blame on local governments and citizens."
Currently some migrants are being transferred to Lesvos which has such a facility but despite this, the situation on Chios remains tense with frequent brawls in the camps between various ethnic groups. Since EU-Turkey agreement, arrivals fell by 97% A 22-year-old Iraqi man was hospitalized on Monday with injuries sustained after an alleged attack by three Syrians.
Since the signing of the EU-Turkey agreement in March 2016, arrivals of migrants from Turkey fell by 97 percent. Still, an average of 60 migrants arrive every day on the island with the new arrivals coming in to facilities which are already overcrowded, with the slow rate of processing asylum claims meaning many are stuck in the camps for months on end.