GREECE:Greece is locking hundreds of migrants in an overcrowded centre on the Mediterranean island of Lesbos without proper sanitation and medical care in what French charity Médicins Sans Frontières has branded a "humanitarian crisis".
The migrants, most of them from Afghanistan, are kept in rooms clogged with stagnant water and only allowed outside for half an hour every couple of days, said Yiorgos Karayiannis, head of MSF Greece's migrant assistance programme.
With some migrants suffering from tuberculosis and skin diseases, there is a risk of contagion and only one doctor was working at the camp, without a translator, MSF said, adding that its staff was not being permitted regular access to provide healthcare.
"The situation is horrible from a medical point of view," Mr Karayiannis said.
Greece is on the front line of the European Union's fight against illegal migration. Its 14,900km (9,258 miles) of poorly patrolled coastline offers a tempting target for migrants from Iraq and Palestine, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A French plan to boost immigration patrols and expel more migrants from the EU, while promoting legal migration and a common asylum policy, is expected to be approved by mid-October. - (Reuters)
