Greece will close large migrant camps in the Aegean Islands within months, and it will set up repatriation centers in Greece, the Greek Ministry of Immigration, Notti Mitarachi, said on Thursday.
"We will close these camps by the summer of 2020," Mitarachi told the ART Network after thousands demonstrated against the camps in Lesbos, Chios, Samsu, Leros and Kos.
It is reported that these camps were established during the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 and 2016 to separate the real migrants from economic reasons, but the camps witnessed crowding and crowding with migrants from the beginning.
The high number of arrivals in the camps since last April worsened the situation, as there are now 40,000 people on the islands, which is six times the capacity of the camps.
According to a government plan announced last year, so-called migrant camps will be converted into closed deportation centers, and the pace of deportation procedures will be accelerated.
"We will see whether it will turn into a reality," said the mayor of Vathy, the capital of Samos Island, adding that "nothing has happened yet."
