Greece on Saturday inaugurated two more migrant holding centres on islands near Turkey as part of a tougher policy for managing migrant flows that has been critised by rights groups.
The conservative government first announced in 2019 it would shut the five camps set up on Greek islands during the height of Europe's migration crisis, when hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Syrian refugees, arrived from Turkey on rubber boats.
"We have finally put behind a crisis that started in 2015. A crisis that neither Greece nor Europe wants to relive," he said. Authorities say the camps will improve living conditions for asylum-seekers and alleviate the burden of the migration crisis on local communities, but rights groups have urged Greece to reconsider.Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic wrote to Greek ministers in May, saying she feared the closed nature of the camps would lead to long-term deprivation of liberty.
The camps on Lesbos, Chios and Samos spilled over into rat-infested olive groves with flimsy tents and poor, often dangerous living conditions.
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