Main opposition party, left-wing SYRIZA sharply criticized the government of conservative New Democracy for attempting to establish a link between public health and protection from coronavirus with the closed detention of refugees and migrants on the islands.
“In the face of the chaos it has created and without any plan for an effective and humane management of the refugee crisis, is resorting to the use of harsh violence against the citizens of the islands,” SYRIZA spokesman Alexandros Chairitsis said on Tuesday.
In an attempt to justify the need for the new closed migration centers, while riot police was clashing with protesting locals on Lesvos and Chios, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said earlier that “the government was also compelled to act due to heightened concerns over the widening coronavirus outbreak,” arguing that “proper health checks could not be carried out at existing overcrowded camps.”
” The attacks on children and the elderly prove that the government has no intention to engage in dialogue and no intention of pursuing the only solution that can normalize the situation: the decongestion of the islands,” Charitsis added.
