ATHENS: Nearly 100 vulnerable asylum seekers including minors have been relocated from Greece and Cyprus to Germany and Finland, the EU's asylum coordination agency said Wednesday.

At the same time, Greece's migration ministry announced that it had activated a scheme to voluntarily repatriate 5,000 asylum seekers to try to alleviate pressure on the badly overcrowded migrant camps on its Aegean islands.

The European Asylum Support Office said in a statement that 83 people from families with seriously ill children had been relocated from Greece to Germany on July 24. In addition, 16 Somalis and Congolese from single-parent families were relocated from Cyprus to Finland on July 27. In both cases, all were tested for COVID-19 before leaving Cyprus and Greece, EASO said.

The programme is supported by the European Commission, the UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration.