Officials on Wednesday said Greece has ordered all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) helping migrants on the Aegean islands to immediately register with the authorities.
Deputy Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos, told radio Protothema that “these organisations sprang like mushrooms after the rain. Some behave like bloodsuckers.’’
The parliament in Athens passed a relevant law in an emergency procedure, seeking to bring order to the chaotic migrant situation on the islands.
Koumoutsakos accused some of the organisations operating on the islands, where thousands of migrants are stranded after arriving from Turkey, of abusing the volatile situation to tap EU funding.
He voiced doubts that a protest of thousands of migrants on Lesbos, which ended with police firing tear gas to disperse the people occupying the island capital Mytilini, was spontaneous, implying that it was incited by some of the NGOs.
Worried by the Greek’s government plan to accelerate the deportation of those whose asylum applications are rejected, the demonstrators demanded a transfer to the mainland.
On top of moving to accelerate the processing of asylum applications and deportations, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government has taken or plans to take other steps to ease the burden of migrant overcrowding on the islands.
The authorities already moved thousands of true refugees to the mainland, but the numbers arriving still outpace those leaving.
Earlier, Athens opened a tender for the construction of a floating barrier off Lesbos to test the possibility of physically blocking the migrants sailing in from the Turkish coast, only 10-12 kilometres away.
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