The mayor of the island of Lesvos has accused the Greek administration of being indifferent to the plight of immigrants in a letter he sent out to cabinet ministers regarding the state of detention centres on the island.

“Refugees and immigrants that arrive daily on Lesvos, in their dozens, are just piled up at Mytilini port and exposed to the elements,”  Spyridon Galinos said in the letter addressed to Public Order Minister Vasilis Kikilias, Interior Minister Argyris Dinopoulos and Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.  

According to LesvosNews, migrants complain that they have no running water and take shelter from the cold and rain by sleeping under parked cars.

 

Galinos claimed that he had requested, in an earlier letter, a supply of beds and the provision of electrical power at the new ‘modern’ immigrant welcome centre in Moria but his demands were ignored, rendering local authorities unable to provide immigrants with humane living conditions.

“In this way the physical and psychological limits of these people are being put to the test while at the same time it is converting the island’s port into a refugee camp creating a terrible image of Lesvos,” he said.

Galinos argued that at a time when local volunteer groups are making superhuman efforts to help out, “the state is absent and doesn’t even do the obvious to make the new centre operational.”

Lesvos has borne the brunt of immigrant inflow from neighbouring Turkey for years.