Dozens of Kurds face deportation

Anthi Pazianou

Dozens of asylum seekers who left the Moria migrant processing center for other facilities on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos will be barred from the process if they do not return to the official camp, the Migration Ministry announced on Monday.

The case concerns 1,000 Kurds who left the squalid Moria camp last week and moved to facilities run by the municipal authority where living conditions are better. Of them, 158 have been transferred to a camp on mainland Greece, but 354 remain at a facility in the former Larso sports arena and 269 at the old PIKPA campsite.

Authorities have given these 623 Kurds until Friday to return to Moria, the official camp or hot spot for refugees and migrants, or face being ejected from the asylum process and deported to Turkey.

According to the most recent data, there were 6,941 asylum seekers registered at Moria at the end of May, when the camp was built to accommodate a maximum of 3,000 people.