A migrant camp on the Greek island of Chios was placed under lockdown after at least 30 residents tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus.
The lockdown is the second for the Vial migrant camp, which was briefly placed under quarantine in August. Around 3,200 migrants are estimated to be currently living in the camp, and none will be allowed to leave it under the new rules.
The Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum, alongside the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Citizen Protection, announced the new measures on Wednesday, Proto Thema reports.
According to the newspaper, the government is also placing a priority on moving pregnant women who are at least five months pregnant to mainland Greece — so that there is no chance they will give birth at an island hospital — to protect their newborns.
The Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos was also placed into a similar lockdown before the camp saw a fire that destroyed much of the camp last month.
The fire was allegedly started by several Afghans living in the camp and left an estimated 13,000 migrants homeless. Six males from Afghanistan, two of them underage, were later arrested in connection with the fires. Footage showing migrants spreading fires was also later released.
After the Moria fires, many nations, such as Germany, offered to take in migrants from the Greek islands. Others, such as Austria, refused to take in any at all but offered money to a Foreign Disaster Fund instead.
Following the announcement of the coronavirus outbreak on Chios, Austrian Social Democrat governor of Carinthia Peter Kaiser called on the European Union to create a “solidarity fund” for those countries willing to accept migrants from the former Moria camp.
Kaiser also stated that his region was willing to take in children from the camp as well.
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