More than 2,000 asylum applicants on Greek islands belong to coronavirus-vulnerable groups and will be temporarily moved from hotspots, International Organization of Migration (IOM) Mission Chief for Greece Gianluca Rocco said on Monday.
Rocco said that the IOM plans to temporarily house these people in hotels and apartments on the islands and the mainland for preventive reasons.
The group of vulnerable people includes everyone over 65 years of age, even those who have no health issues, he added.
For the same reason, last week the UN High Commission for Refugees issued an invitation for rentals of hotels and ships.
The latter would dock at the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros, and the contracts would cover 15 days with the option of extension to two months.
The Greek Migration & Asylum Ministry had approved the plan and the European Union will fund it.
Rocco asserted that “hoteliers are interested in housing migrants at this point to house migrants for a limited amount of time.”
The ongoing UN program to house refugees will continue as well, he said.
He added that Greek authorities and the IOM are trying to create facilities to house 5,000 asylum seekers within the next two months, including refurbishing older buildings and using prefabricated homes.
As for unaccompanied children, the first group to leave for relocation to an EU country consistes of 12 children going to Luxembourg, one of about a dozen countries accepting unaccompanied migrant children from Greece.
The number of migrants who have been granted asylum under the program Helios, which helps integration, totals 7,753 beneficiaries of whom 1,294 are receiving a rent subsidy.
Rocco said that one of the urgent issues after the pandemic will be for them to find jobs, for which they will need support due to the limited access to the job market they will have.
