The Greek Government initiates the mandatory detention of migrants from Lesbos

The Greek police began this Thursday the operation to evict the settlements of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos.

In an operation "without force and with persuasion", according to a spokesman for the Greek Ministry of Migration, a third of the 13,000 asylum seekers were interned in the new camp managed by the United Nations agency for Refugees (UNHCR).

Long queues were organized at the entrances to this field so that the people who entered, were registered and subjected to the detection tests for possible covid-19 infected.

The contrast was great with respect to the previous days, when the migrants moved voluntarily, but in a trickle, to the reception center.

The Greek authorities have erected the new facilities in record time following the fires that swept through the Moria refugee camp last week.

The Migration Ministry reported that it planned for the camp to host 5,000 of the asylum seekers by the end of the day.

The works to expand the camp will continue in the coming days until it has a capacity for the 13,000 people who still claim a space.

A family of inmates in the camp reported by phone late Thursday that there were not enough tents for everyone and they were preparing to spend the night outdoors inside the camp.

For its part, UNHCR clarifies that there may be delays in the accommodation of refugees, but that there are stores for all those registered in the center.

The new space where UNHCR will attend to migrants is located on the beach of Kara Tepe, a former military enclave adjacent to Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos.

The general aversion among asylum seekers to go to the new camp is due to the fear of entering what they understand to be a kind of prison.

The Government and UNHCR have established at least two weeks of quarantine for the coronavirus when the entire population is hospitalized, a period that many refugees believed would be extended indefinitely.

The Ministry of Migration assures that after the sanitary confinement, the internal population will be able to leave the field at the established times, but never at night, to avoid conflicts with the local population and with the extreme right, according to the official explanation.

Other current limitations of the camp that have deterred asylum seekers are the lack of electricity and water for washing.

The authorities' forecasts are to install the electricity supply through generators and water tanks.

The NGOs established in the area recommend refugees to appear at the official reception center because it is the way to be registered to continue with the asylum process or, for those who already have it, to be part of the quotas of relocation to other ports in Greece and other countries of the European Union.

Of the large EU member states, only Germany has committed to hosting a significant number of refugees, some 1,500.

The police prevented NGO and media access to the main migrant settlement, in an area of ​​polygons, with a supermarket as the epicenter of displacement.

The reason was that a humanitarian operation was underway and it was a priority to avoid contagion of the covid-19 near a population over which the threat of outbreaks that worsen its precarious situation even more.

Despite the prohibition of access to the area of ​​the operation, the authorities were permissive if journalists entered the area through rural trails.

Once inside, the situation from the afternoon was calm and the NGOs could distribute food or treat the sick.

The migrants interviewed by this newspaper, from Afghanistan, Congo and Somalia, agreed that, contrary to expectations, the police had not acted with the use of force.

Greek riot police fired tear gas last Saturday and charged migrants who wanted to leave the area in the direction of Mytilene.

The authorities did carefully control the movement of those who had not gone to the new camp, to prevent them from leaving the perimeter controlled by the police in the direction of neighboring urban centers.

Zakir Hussein, a young Afghan who arrived in Lesbos in early 2020, explained that he had no intention of leaving the place where he was spending the night, at the entrance to a gas station, until it was not essential.

Hussein and his wife had their belongings packed in a few bags because the police told them they had until this Friday to leave for the new government camp.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Migration in Lesbos commented that there was no specific date to finish the transfer, and conceded that the problem could occur at the end, when the migrants were most reluctant, despite persuasion, to move from the place where they were camped. .