At least 60 people have been hurt as riot Police clashed with protesters on Lesbos and Chios over plans to build new migrant camps.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for calm and is due to meet the regional governor and local mayors to discuss the crisis. Stones were thrown by protestors which was met with a fierce response from security forces.
Authorities in Athens have pledged to build new centres to replace overcrowded facilities on Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos. The government plans to bring down the number of migrants on the islands from 42,000 to 20,000.
After weeks of talks between the government and local people, the government secretly shipped construction machinery and hundreds of riot police officers to Lesbos and Chios.
In Lesbos, crowds attempted to approach a site earmarked for a migrant centre.
A police spokesman said more than 1,000 people were at the site and claimed they had thrown stones at officers, smashing their helmets. During the day, 43 police and 10 protesters were hurt.
On Chios, about 2,000 people took to the streets.
Video footage, posted online by local media, shows a group of people bursting into the hotel, beating officers and throwing objects from windows.
On Tuesday, hooded demonstrators reportedly pelted riot police with rocks at the harbour on Chios as riot police sent from mainland Greece disembarked.
Protesters on Lesbos meanwhile blocked roads leading to a construction site with rubbish trucks and cars.
According to Greek reports, regional governor Kostas Moutzouris and West Lesbos Mayor Taxiarchis Verros both joined a road cordon with residents.
Dimitra Kalogeropoulou, Greek head of the International Rescue Committee, said the tensions should be no surprise, adding that overcrowding “is good for no one; local communities feel their islands have been transformed into giant prisons, while asylum seekers are forced to live in dangerous conditions”.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived on the Greek islands off Turkey en route from Syria to Europe in 2015 and 2016. Numbers had dropped after an agreement was reached with Turkey but there are currently 43,000 migrants on the islands.
Some 19,000 people are currently housed at the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos – originally designed to accommodate fewer than 3,000.
The Islands are also on strike and “Closed because of treason,” read many signs hung outside businesses in Mytilene on Wednesday. It is evident that Lesbos residents will continue to make their anger over their treatment heard this week.
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