Greek authorities scramble to house migrants

Greek authorities “are scrambling to house almost 4,000 people crammed into an overflowing migrant camp in Samos, as aid groups warn of a ‘humanitarian disaster’ on one of Europe’s forgotten frontlines,” writes the Guardian’s Helena Smith in a Feb. 22 article.

“Likening Samos to a ‘new Lesbos,’ the country’s migration minister warned of a race against the clock to find suitable accommodation for the ever growing number of people trapped in a reception centre now six times over capacity,” Smith reports.

As in Lesbos, “which received more than 1 million people at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, smuggler rings have their sights on the eastern Aegean outcrop, which lies barely a mile from the Turkish coast.”