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By APD writer Aditya Nugraha
ATHENS, Nov. 3 (APD) - Greece government has gradually transferred migrants from the overcrowded camp in Lesbos Island to the mainland with the process was planned to continue over the next 15 days.
On Saturday the Greek authorities have transferred 415 migrants who arrived in western Athens port of Eleusis. Another 380 is expected to arrive at around midday on Sunday. They were being moved by Greek Navy ships usually used to transport tanks.
The migrants had been living on the island of Lesbos, at the Moria camp where almost 15,000 migrants still live in a space designed for 3,000.
A senior Greek official said that the government has planned to transfer some 5,000 migrants from the island within the next 15 days.
The migrants would be housed in hotels, as the peak tourist season is over, the official said.
Some parts of the mainland, such as northern Greece, will be exempted from the migrant transferring process as there are many migrant camps there already, he added.
The Greek government would cap the number of migrants at 0.8 percent of the local population per prefecture, he said without mentioning whether more permanent locations would be used in the future.
Greece is divided into 54 prefectures, but about half of them would be exempted from the migrant resettlement project, including all islands.
Several of Greece’s eastern islands, all close to the Turkish coast, as well as the land border with Turkey in the north-east, are preferred entry points for migrants.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
