Greek government’s new migrant camp plan hits obstacle

Greece’s plans to build another so-called Closed and Controlled Center for migrants on the island of Lesbos have been scuppered after the country’s Supreme Administrative Court, the Council of State, revoked the construction permit for the proposed access road.

According to the court’s decision, the permit for the proposed camp in Vastria was canceled “due to a lack of an environmental study.” The whole project proposes to level up to 21,000 acres of pine trees in the heart of the largest Aegean forest.

Similar Closed and Controlled Access Centers have already been built on Samos and Chios.

‘The construction of the facility will proceed normally’

Despite the decision, Greece’s new Migration Minister, Dimitris Kairidis, made a statement insisting that the proposed facility will go ahead. “The construction of the new facility in Vastria will proceed normally. The Ministry of Immigration and Asylum has already ensured that the new structure will meet all the environmental conditions and specifications required by the relevant legislative framework and the recent decision of the Council of State,” he said.

Kairidis added: “Our goal is a modern, safe and functional new structure, which will modernize the capabilities of the national reception system. We are working closely with the local community on Lesbos to make this happen.”

Despite those comments, it’s no secret that the local community, not just in the Vastria area but across Lesbos in general, has unanimously voiced their opposition to the construction of the new facility, staging protests against it.

‘The minister is blowing our mind’

A statement from the advocate of the residents of Lesbos group who appealed to the Council of State, Loukas Apostolidis, told Greek newspaper Ef.Syn: “The minister is blowing our minds. I would have expected that at a time when hundreds of thousands of acres of forestland have been burned all over Greece, he would be more careful when referring to the protection of the country’s forest areas.”

As Apostolidis explains, the reasoning behind the decision includes the reasons and causes invoked by the appealing residents for the protection of the natural environment, in addition of course to the purely legal reasons, which had recently led to the cancellation of the construction of another camp in Thermopylae, central Greece.

There is still also an ongoing appeal to the Council of State pending which rejects the very existence of the facility at all.The project would cost a projected €76 million plus VAT. Despite all of this, the government does not seem to be in the mood for backing down and continues to aim to push for the completion of the project.