NEWS

Migrants protest detention conditions in Komotini

Some 400 of about 550 undocumented migrants being held for deportation at a police training facility that has been turned into a detention center in Komotini, northeastern Greece, on Friday hauled out their mattresses and set them alight in the courtyard to protest holding conditions.

The protesters cried “Freedom” and “Send us home,” as they burned mattresses, wooden doors and window frames, launching rocks and metal rods wrenched from their bunks at riot officers called to the scene.

At least four riot officers and four migrants were injured in the fracas, while authorities made around 50 arrests.

The protest in Komotini comes less than a week after similar action in Corinth in the northern Peloponnese, where inmates complained that there was no hot water in the showers, among other grievances.

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