Greece opens two more holding centres for migrants on islands

28/11/2021 5:53

        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.
        
        It is replacing them with so-called "Closed Controlled Structures" funded by the European Union, featuring barbed wire fences, surveillance systems and ID and fingerprint scanning at the gates.
        
        Speaking on Saturday as the centres on Kos and Leros opened, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said the move was "a key pillar of our strict but fair immigration policy."