Two closed temporary shelters for asylum seekers and illegal migrants were inaugurated on the eastern Aegean islands of Leros and Kos over the weekend, part the Greek government’s efforts to manage a much slower but still continuing number of arrivals being smuggled onto the isles from the opposite Turkish coast.

EU Commission vice president Margaritis Schinas was on hand for the inauguration, while relevant Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi underlined that “the conditions our islands that existed during the 2015-2019 period finally belong to the past.”

He was referring to the height of the migration crisis, especially in 2015-16, which engulfed the country, as looser controls and an unspoken policy by the then SYRIZA government in its first year of power to allow asylum seekers – especially those that declared themselves displaced Syrians – to land on Greek territory in an attempt to reach preferred destinations in central and western Europe.

Mitarachi underlined that completion of a national reception system is a main axis of the strict but fair migration policy that the government is following from the very first moment.

“These are shelters that guarantee conditions of decent living for people that apply for asylum but also the necessary security for the undocumented migrants that are going to be returned or deported,” he said.

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