With a legislative act “for reasons of public interest” the Greek government proceeds with the requisition of properties and land on the five Aegean islands in order to construct the new closed migration centers, government spokesman Stelios Petsa announced on Monday.
“The Council of Ministers is today issuing a Legislative Content Act authorizing the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum to requisite properties and land for reasons of public interest and crisis management” in order to address the urgent need to avoid jeopardizing public order and health, Petsas said.
He added that the government’s decision is “to close down today’s anarchic structures and create controlled closed structures.”
Locations to be requisited are:
1. Location Karavas, Municipality of West Lesvos.
2. Location of Cretan Lakos / Iira (“17”), Municipality of Chios.
3. Location of Zervos (adjacent to construction), Municipality of Eastern Samos.
Corresponding structures, adjacent to existing structures, will also be created in Leros and Kos, on land belonging to the Greek State:
4. Captain Lazari Military Camp, location Pyli, Municipality of Kos.
5. Location Lepida, Municipality of Leros.
The above-mentioned areas will establish controlled and closed accommodation structures for asylum-seekers.
According to the government spokesman, “controlled closed structures mean defined and strict rules of internal order, which concern both the operation of the centers and the movement of the guests.”
Accommodated in these structures, will be:
1. new arrivals in order to facilitate identification and the asylum process
2. those with abusive behavior
3. those not eligible to asylum and in procedure to be deported.
What raises questions in Petsas’ announcement is: where the “old” arrivals, people waiting from several months to two years for their asylum eligibility or rejection will be accommodated. The government has reiterated several times that the existing camps (“hotspots”) on the islands will close down.
Petsas stressed that “those in the closed structures will be entitled to controlled “exit cards for a specified period of time.” The structures will close at night.
“Any breach of internal rule of law adversely affects the asylum claim and speeds up the process of returning the offender,” Petsas warned.
So far, there are no reactions by the local authorities to the requisition of properties and land on the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros. It is also not known whether -with the exception of the Camp on Kos – the properties to be requisites or part of them belong to municipalities, private owners, or the Greek Church. However, according to local media reports, the Karavas land belongs to the Municipality of Lesvos.
The Greek government seems to had to step back from its original plan to strictly closed structures as the European Union would not fund them as they violate migration laws.
Athens is determined to get the migration problem under control by accelerating asylum procedures and deportations hoping to curb migration flows.
Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said on Monday that “200 deportations per week” are planned.
“The new closed centers will accommodate a total of 20,000 people,” he added.
The new centers are expected to operate by summer.
PS I always thought requisition is a normal practice conducted only by communists regimes and by governments in times of war. Requisition in Greece 2020? A hail to democracy…
Not only communist regimes behave in this way: actually, it is more typical of fascist regimes. It’s just that it’s been so long since we had any in Europe, that most people have forgotten the bad times of the 1930s. Now, most of Europe is travelling in that direction.
communist, fascist, they’re 99.9999% the same thing. Let’s get a clearer view of things and understand that totalitarian regimes, unlimited power in the hands of _any_ government, is still tyrannical regardless of the brand names and colors painted on the outside.
Why doesn’t the EU force countries such as Hungary to take in refugees?? It’s absolutely unacceptable that Greece has to open more camps when Hungary simply does what it likes.
It should be thrown out of the European Union and soon.