Migrants at a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday hurled stones at police and torched temporary offices used by asylum officials in an hour-long protest over conditions. Jose Carreira, executive director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), said at least four shipping containers where interviews were conducted were entirely destroyed, and three more were damaged.
"Incidents have occurred in the past but this is the most serious one," Carreira told AFP. "We are looking into ways of guaranteeing that this might not happen again," said Carreira, who is in Athens for meetings with Greece's immigration ministry. No-one was hurt in the incident as the blaze was quickly brought under control by fire-fighters, but Carreira said it could be days before asylum interviews can resume. Around 70 migrants took part in the protest, most of them from Pakistan and Bangladesh, a local police source said. Police made a dozen arrests.
The incident took place at the overcrowded Moria camp, one of five centres on Greek Aegean islands, which have borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis. More than 15,000 migrants are being held on the Aegean islands, pending their return to Turkey under an EU-Turkish agreement reached in March this year.
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