ATHENS – The European Union’s home affairs commissioner is visiting asylum-seeker facilities on the eastern Greek islands of Samos and Lesbos amid continuing accusations against Greece of illegal summary deportations.
EU commissioner Ylva Johansson and Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi were to hold meetings with local officials on the two islands Monday, and to visit a new camp being constructed on Samos, and a camp on Lesbos in which thousands of asylum-seekers have been living since the notoriously overcrowded Moria camp on the island burned down last year.
Refugee rights organizations and numerous asylum-seekers have accused Greek authorities of conducting pushbacks at sea — the illegal deportation of newly arrived asylum-seekers