Greece relocates migrants living in tent city News
Greece relocates migrants living in tent city

[JURIST] Migrants who set up a tent city in Athens, Greece have begun being relocated, said Greek authorities on Sunday. Many migrants coming from Afghanistan, Syria, and other countries migrated to the country to escape violence and with more than 130,000 migrants coming in the last year alone, a strain has been put on Greece’s finite finances. So far Athenian authorities were able to relocate [AP report] 171 individuals, of the 300 temporarily residing in the park, on Sunday using fire brigade buses as transportation. The migrants are being hosted in settlement containers in Votanikos which are equipped with air conditioning, running water, and a toilet. While the government maintains that the facilities allow for the migrants to freely come and go, many remain skeptical and moved from the park ahead of the resettlement.

Refugees from conflict areas in Africa and the Middle East have generated a tremendous humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean with hundreds of deaths in recent months. In June,European Union [official website] leaders announced [press release] that a final quota compromise [JURIST report] had been reached regarding the large number of illegal immigrants arriving in Italy and Greece after crossing the Mediterranean sea. Also in June a British warship sailing in the Mediterranean Sea launched a mission [JURIST report] to rescue over 500 migrants stranded at sea. Also in June Amnesty International called [JURIST report] the situation the worst refugee crisis since World War II. In April top UN human rights officials and the International Organization for Migration issued a joint statement [JURIST report] calling on the EU to create a new rescue operation program for migrants attempting to traverse the Mediterranean and to commit to greater receipt of refugees. Also in April UN rights experts warned [JURIST report] the EU that repression of irregular migration cannot be the only solution to the recurrent grave problem of masses of people drowning at sea. In February a Spanish court accused 16 civil guards [JURIST report] of using excessive force against 15 sub-Saharan immigrants who drowned attempting to swim around a seawall between Ceuta and Morocco last February.