(Reuters) Greece, on the front line of migration into Europe, promised on Wednesday to build new reception centres for asylum seekers and cut the maximum stay in camps on its now-overcrowded islands.
The country bore the brunt of a large influx of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015 and 2016, many arriving via its outlying Aegean islands close to Turkey.
The flow has since ebbed significantly, though more than 90,000 migrants remain in Greece, of which about 19,000 live in filthy temporary camps, some for months or years.
Authorities will have finished the construction of better-equipped camps on the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos by the autumn of 2021, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said. None of the asylum seekers would be on an island for more than six months.
