The Greek government is considering setting up a migrant detention facility on the island of Rhodes to address the issue of rising arrivals of migrants from Turkey.
Hundreds of migrants arrived on the island and nearby Symi in October, camping in parks and squares in downtown Rhodes. The migrants set up tents and cardboard boxes waiting to be identified and then transferred to accommodation facilities to be processed further.
According to local government sources, about 500 migrants landed on the island illegally coming by sea from neighboring Turkey.
Authorities removed them from the squares and parks and processed some 150 of them to the Leros migrant facility. The rest of migrants were taken further inland while their identification process continues.
Α number of them blocked the embarkment to the ship for Piraeus Port demanding to embark. They had tickets and passports, but lacked the necessary travel documents. Police and coast guard officers proceeded to record them.
The migrants entered in front of the ship’s catapult, blocking the ship’s departure and demanding to leave immediately from the island and move to an organized hospitality structures on another island or inland.
Even though there are regular arrivals of illegal migrants on Rhodes in the past few months, there is no detention facility on he island.
Migrant facility is planned
The government will establish a temporary detention facility on Rhodes for processing migrants, said Migration Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos.
Speaking on public television ERT, Panagiotopoulos said that, “There will be progress on the issue in the coming weeks,” adding that it is essential that there will be consultations with the local community.
The Greek minister said many migrants, including unregistered ones, could be transferred from Rhodes to reception centers on the mainland where camps are operating at almost full capacity.
More than 48,000 migrants reached Greece in the January-October period, the second largest number in southern Europe behind Italy, including more than 5,500 arrivals on Rhodes, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, Reuters reports.
Greece has been a major gateway to Europe for migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Asia. More than one million crossed from Turkey to Greece’s eastern islands in 2015-2016 aided by migrant smugglers. Hundreds have drowned while attempting to cross on unsafe boats.
On Wednesday four people drowned – one woman and three men – and 25 were found on the coast of Rhodes by the coast guard. The men said that a speedboat carried them from Turkey and left them close to a Rhodes coast.