Greece to Return 10 Thousand Refugees to Turkey

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Greece has decided to return 10 thousand refugees to Turkey by the end of 2020 after a deadly fire in a refugee camp in Lesbos island.

The cabinet of Greece held an emergency meeting after Sunday's (September 29) fire at the Moria camp where a woman was killed and 17 people, including two children, were injured.

The Moria camp has a capacity of 3 thousand but currently hosts more than 13 thousand refugees and is the most crowded refugee camp in Europe, according to BBC Turkish.

CLICK - Both the Numbers of Incoming and Leaving Refugees Increase

Around 10 thousand new refugees have come to Lesbos in the last three months, according to the government of Greece.

Greece has the right to return illegal migrants to Turkey, according to an agreement signed between Turkey and the EU in 2016. EU will make financial aid to Turkey in return.

Boris Cheshirkov, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Greece, called for better conditions at Moria and faster transfers of migrants off the island, describing the situation as "critical." (RT/VK)