(AFP) In a tented courtyard in the migrant camp on Greece’s Leros island, a dozen new arrivals await registration after two weeks in Covid-19 quarantine.
“You can submit a claim for asylum, but only in Greece,” a young Greek official tells them through a translator, as armed police stand watch.
“If you do not, you will be sent back to your home country,” he adds.
After being searched, the mainly Somali migrants — including several women, a baby and an elderly man on prosthetic legs — are photographed, fingerprinted and rigorously interviewed.
With the support of EU equipment and personnel, Greece has stepped up its security safeguards since the November 2015 Paris attacks when jihadists killed 130 people in suicide bombing and gun assaults.
