Author: Gabriela Baczynska | reuters.com | 24 March 2020
The European Union has asked Greece to move migrants most at risk of contracting the coronavirus from overcrowded camps on its Mediterranean islands, the EU’s top migration official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said Athens had opposed moving the migrants to the Greek mainland, citing the absence of coronavirus cases in the camps while the disease is spreading elsewhere in Greece.
With much of Europe in lockdown under measures to curb the spread of the virus, Johansson said the elderly, sick and others most at risk of infection could be moved to other areas on the Greek islands.
“We are working together with the Greek government and the Greek authorities to agree on an emergency plan to help reduce the risk as much as possible in the overcrowded hotspots on the islands,” Johansson said in a telephone interview.