Greece extends confinement of migrant camps until June 7

The Greek Ministry of Migration announced on Friday the extension until June 7 of the containment measures in the asylum seekers' camps, implemented for more than two months to stem the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

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" Following a decision by the Ministers for Citizen Protection, Health and Migration, measures against the spread of the Covid-19 virus are extended for residents of reception and identification centers across the country, "according to a brief statement. No further details were given on this decision. On March 17, the Greek government decided to confine the migrant population inside the overcrowded camps on the islands and on the continent, a week before the general confinement imposed on the whole country.

If deconfinement was started on May 4 in Greece for the general population, the government extended, for the first time on May 10, the confinement of migrant camps until May 21. Before pushing back a second time Friday, their reopening on June 7. As in the rest of the country, the epidemic of the new coronavirus has had little impact on the camps: among the 168 dead in Greece, there are no known deaths so far due to Covid-19 in the migrant population, according to authorities.

And among the 2,853 cases of coronavirus announced to date, a few dozen have been recorded in three facilities on the continent, but none in the sordid camps of the Aegean islands. Massive testing in the camps, however, only started in early May. Only two migrants who arrived in Lesbos in early May and live in a temporary camp in the north of the island had tested positive and placed in quarantine.

In the Moria camp, one of the most overcrowded in Europe, " no case " of Covid-19 has been recorded so far, recently welcomed government spokesman Stelios Petsas. But human rights NGOs, including the UN agency of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), called on Athens to " not compromise " refugee rights after restrictions imposed because of the epidemic . More than 33,000 asylum seekers live in the five camps on the Aegean islands, with a total capacity of 5,400 people, and 70,000 in other facilities on the continent.