Roundup: Refugee hotspots to be decongested, says Greek minister after deadly fire

The refugee hotspots on the Aegean Sea islands will be decongested and living conditions will improve, Greek Migration Policy Minister Yannis Mouzalas said on Sunday in the wake of Friday's fire at Moria camp on Lesvos island which resulted in two deaths.

A 60-year-old Kurdish woman from Iraq and her six-year old grandson were killed when a cooking gas canister exploded inside their tent. The mother of the deceased boy and his younger sibling were severely burned and transferred to Athens where they are hospitalized.

The tragic event was a reminder of the urgency to improve living conditions for the refugees in the overcrowded hosting facilities on the Greek islands.

"It is imperative to improve conditions in the hotspots," Mouzalas told Greek national news agency AMNA.

He pledged that soon the number of hosting centers will be reduced to half, as well as the population that lives in them, without elaborating.

Currently some 6,300 people are living in overcrowded centers on Lesvos which have capacity to host 3,500 people. The situation is similar on nearby islands.

Several people are stranded in the hotspots since spring. Under the EU-Turkey deal in March aimed to stem the refugee-migrants influx into Europe, all migrants and refugees landing in Greece should stay on the islands until their asylum bids are assessed. Those noneligible for asylum are returned to Turkey.

However, the process of assessment of asylum bids is lengthy due to personnel shortage.

The Greek government's battles at diplomatic level in coming weeks, Mouzalas told AMNA, concern the transfer of the refugees from the islands to the mainland, the change in the Dublin Treaty and the request for the establishment of a single European mechanism for the return of the migrants to their country of origin.

The Greek official repeated Athens' criticism that other European countries have failed to fully meet their commitments under March's deal and send experts to the Greek islands to support the process.

Out of the 400 employees the European Commission had promised to send to add to the Greek asylum staff, only 35 have arrived. In addition, Belgium has retracted Belgian experts citing safety reasons, as tensions in the hotspots from frustrated refugees have escalated and stormy protests are often held lately.

More than 62,000 refugees and migrants have been trapped in Greece after the closure of the Balkan route to central Europe last February, according to Greek government data. About 750 have returned to Turkey. Endit