On Monday, about 2000 migrants and refugees from Camp Moria tried to reach the capital Mitilini.
The march started at around 10.30 am and was organized in protest against the terrible living conditions in the state camp, which receives many times more residents than it was calculated.
Refugees and migrants were also dissatisfied with the slow pace of processing their applications, which kept them trapped in the camp. The migrants, chanting “Liberty”, began marching in the morning from the Moriah reception and accommodation centre. They demand that the asylum process be accelerated and that they be transported from the island where they have been staying for several months.
Greek police used tear gas and light-noise grenades against the migrants, who after a mass protest march on the island of Lesbos began rioting, according to the newspaper “Efimerida ton Shintakton”.
Police used gas and blocked the road to prevent protesters from reaching Mitylini, the administrative center of the island. However, a group of protesters continued marching towards the city, some of them setting fire to garbage on farmland.