Athens mayor appeals for help with migrant influx
Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis on Tuesday appealed for help from the government and Greece’s eurozone partners to manage the arrival of thousands of migrants and refugees in the Greek capital, warning that the situation could “spiral out of control.”
Kaminis was speaking on Skai television two days after a ferry arrived in Piraeus with some 2,000 migrants from the islands, in a bid to ease the pressure on areas on Greece’s eastern sea border that have been bearing the brunt of the increased influx from war-torn Syria.
“The situation is already critical and could become extremely serious,” Kaminis said.
“There is a huge hole in the immigration law,” the Athens mayor and former ombudsman said. “From a migration problem we have already passed to a refugee problem,” he said, adding that there are hundreds of families with children among the new arrivals.
“We need solidarity from Europe as well as solidarity between different Greek cities,” Kaminis said, criticizing the practice of authorities shipping or busing migrants intercepted at borders to Athens.
“They see Athens as a crucible,” he said.
Kaminis proposed opening disused military bases and transforming them into open reception centers rather than detention centers.
