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Rights Envoy Urges Greece to Transfer Migrants to Mainland

Associated Press

   BRUSSELS - A European top official says the situation in Greece's
   migrant camps is "explosive" and is urging the country's authorities to
   transfer asylum-seekers from islands to the mainland.
   The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic
   said Thursday that "the situation of migrants, including
   asylum-seekers, in the Greek Aegean islands has dramatically worsened
   over the past 12 months."

   Greek authorities are struggling to cope with a sharp rise in the
   number of arrivals over the summer months on Lesbos and other islands
   in the eastern Aegean Sea where European Union-funded camps are
   suffering severe overcrowding and outbreaks of violence.

   Mijatovic, who visited camps in Lesbos, Samos and Corinth, added that
   Greece should implement urgent measures "to address the desperate
   conditions in which thousands of human beings are living.

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