Residents of the Greek island of Chios will join a national protest against the government's migration policy which will be held in Athens on Tuesday, December 5, the island's mayor Manolis Vournous said this past Wednesday.The demonstration, which will take place outside the Ministry for Migration Policy on Klafthmonos Square in the center, has been called by authorities on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos, whose mayor Spyros Galinos also called a general strike on the island last week due to the ongoing migrant-related problems.

The local municipal governments of the Eastern Aegean islands are protesting against the continuing and escalating overcrowding and woeful living conditions of refugees and migrants on the islands.Vournos even went as far as to say he would take legal action against the government if they go ahead with plans to expand the smaller VIAL migrant camp on the island. The camp only has an official capacity for 850 people but there are currently 2,350 refugees staying there."Legal measures will be taken if the state tries to go through with this. Any legal action we take will be simply a continuation of the action already taken by the Chios City Council," Vournous told reporters.There was cause for brief celebration later on Wednesday for Vournous and Chios' residents when it was announced that no work could begin to increase the VIAL facility until at least January 16 following a decision by the Chios County Court.The decision came after the City Council filed interim measures against the state and the court said it will hear these procedures first before any further work can be carried out.Dozens of local residents had been camped outside the area blocking workers where trucks had offloaded portable cabins to begin work on the expansion of VIAL.

 Human rights group in plea to Greek state

 Only last week a group of 20 human rights groups issued a stern winter warning to the Greek government, calling it to end what they described as a "containment policy" on the Eastern Aegean islands.Human Rights Watch (HRW) led an impassioned plea for the state to begin immediate transfers of migrants stranded at the desperately overcrowded migrant camps to the mainland to avoid "putting lives at risk" due to worsening weather conditions.

Migrants die in car chase

Meanwhile in Northern Greece, local police said that four migrants have died after a car carrying eight people drove off a cliff following a high-speed car chase.Police said that the car was carrying the migrants west after illegally crossing the Turkish border.The names and nationalities of the migrants are as yet unknown but police sources said the accident happened near the town of Kavala, East of Thessaloniki.According to reports, the driver, suspected to be a human trafficker, ignored police orders to stop on a highway before then turning onto a smaller road where he lost control of the vehicle, which was carrying eight people in total.