2016-07-11 18:49:00

Migrants clash with police on Greek island of Leros


(Vatican Radio) An uneasy calm settled on the idyllic eastern Aegean island of Leros on Monday, after a weekend of incidents between frustrated migrants and local vigilante groups backed by police.

John Carr reports from the Greek capital Athens: 

The clashes began on Saturday, when some 200 migrants broke out of the holding camps, where they’ve been penned up for months, and thronged the main town of Leros.  They seem to have been protesting the actions of citizens’ groups who have demonstrated their opposition to the migrants’ long presence on the island.

Some injuries were reported on Sunday, and several arrests, though riot police continued to be on standby on Monday.

The clashes show that Greece’s intractable migrant problem has not gone away, and that many thousands of Middle Easterners who haven’t managed to get asylum papers face bleak and indefinite futures in similar camps across Greece.

The vigilantes, on the other hand, claim that the presence of the migrant camps has dealt a serious blow to tourism in the eastern Aegean, at a time of severe economic crisis, and want them out.








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