Over 600 migrants of different nationalities reached Lesvos over the weekend, pushing the total number of people seeking asylum on the island to above the 11,000 mark.
On Friday 98 people reached the island, with another 193 on Saturday and an additional 324 on Sunday, authorities said.
The majority of migrants (8,912) are staying at the Moria camp, while an additional 3,100 people have been put up at the Kara Tepe center. The rest of the asylum seekers are staying at smaller migrant camps located around the island.
This comes as Greece was told it should urgently move children and other vulnerable migrants from its most overcrowded island camps to the mainland or to other EU countries as their physical and mental state is deteriorating.
According to Reuters, The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the Moria camp should be closed next month unless authorities clean up “uncontrollable amounts of waste”.
“This is the third year that MSF has been calling on the Greek authorities and the EU to take responsibility for their collective failures,” the agency told Reuters.
“It is time to immediately evacuate the most vulnerable to safe accommodation in other European countries.”
Greece has become a gateway into the European Union for hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived since 2015 and Athens is struggling to cope.
Greece has criticised Europe’s handling of the crisis and some EU member states for not sharing the burden.
