Greek police arrested five people in the closed migrants structure on the island of Samos around Tuesday midnight after a big crowd of migrants and refugees gathered to protest the attack at the Gaza hospital that killed over 500 people patients, medical and nursing personnel but also people who had sought shelter there.
من قلب كامب ساموس اليونان
✌️✌️✌️ pic.twitter.com/S29VdxRCx5— Mossab.99 🇬🇷🇵🇸𓂆 (@Mossab992) October 17, 2023
Some 700 people, mainly Palestinians and Syrians, protested inside the structure. At some point several people from different wards moved towards the gate shout slogas in favor of Palestine and against Israel, media report.
According to the police, strong forces were present at the structure. A police drone was used to coordinate the operation to bring the protesters back to their wards.
Initially seven protesters were detained, for five of them the detentions ended up in arrests.
As reported by police, the arrested were throwing stones at police officers and were inciting others foreigners to participate in the attacks. They face charges of incitement to violence, disturbing the peace and violence against employees.
The five face charges of incitement to violence, disturbing the common peace and disturbance of common peace and inciting to crimes, violent acts or discord.
There are currently 4,500 migrants living in the structure located at Zervou Mytilinion on the island of Samos.
Increased security measures in migrant facilities
It is recalled that unrest also prevailed on the evening of Thursday, October 12 on the island of Leros, when 123 immigrants of Syrian and Palestinian origin left the accommodation structure with a request to be transferred to Athens.
The Police Authorities and the Coast Guard were immediately mobilized, as a result of which 121 of them were taken back to the structure, while authorities made a small number of arrests.
A small group of people managed to board a boat bound for the port of Piraeus. Eventually, three migrants who boarded were found to be undocumented and with fake boarding passes and were arrested.
After the incident, it was decided to temporarily suspend the possibility of exiting the residents of the Leros migrants structure.
Following the developments in the Middle East, Greece’s National Intelligence Service and the Anti-Terror Department continuously monitor and collect information on persons of interest both in neighborhoods and in so-called hot spots where Middle Eastern immigrants live.
According to news website thetoc.gr, riot police squads (MAT) have been deployed to the Aegean islands of Kos, Leros and Samos to deal with possible riots.
