Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis announced on Monday that requisition of properties and land plots for the new detention centers on the five Aegean islands will be delayed until Friday. Aim of the ‘freezing’ is to start dialogue with the local communities that have strongly reacted to the measure.
“We are freezing requisitions so that the dialogue starts,” Mitarakis said in an interview with state broadcaster ERT TV.
He called on residents and local authorities to work together in order to launch a dialogue.
“Give us an alternatives,” he said.
The safety of the islands is of paramount importance, the creation of closed controlled centers cannot be delayed, he stressed.
Referring to the hot spots on Lesvos, Chios and Samos, he said “the open structures in Moria, Vial and Vathi will close down.
He called on local communities to ease confrontation.
Regional Governor of North Aegean, Costas Moutzouris, who was also in the ERT studio, called for the suspension of requisitions, for doctors to be sent to the islands, for thousands of refugees to leave and islands and for the control of NGOs.
The government requisition decision was announced on February 10, took the local authorities by surprise and led to major rupture between the two parties.
Locla communities accused the government of “authoritarian practices.”
Over the weekend, Lesvos authorities organized the blockade of the roads leading to the land plot where the new migration center is to be built and dumped tons of rotten used life-vests in the area.
PS even with delay, the government decided to proceed to dialogue with the local communities. Better later than never.
