As the Greek government moved 2,000 asylum seekers this week from hotspots due to their vulnerability to coronavirus, another twenty unaccompanied refugee minors left the Moria hotspot on Lesvos Island on Tuesday for relocation to Germany.
According to Greek authorities another 20 asylum applicants are also leaving for Piraeus through a program of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to be housed in facilities on the mainland. Currently, the number of refugees and asylum applicants in the Moria area has dropped to 18,600.
Meanwhile the numbers of illegal arrivals have dropped significantly with no arrivals on the Aegean islands, a decrease from last week’s 39 arrivals and from last year’s 278 arrivals during the same period. The average daily arrivals on all islands this week equalled 0, compared to 6 in the previous week.
According to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees some 39,200 refugees and asylum seekers reside on the Aegean islands. The majority of the population on the Aegean islands are from Afghanistan (49%), Syria (19%) and Somalia (6%).
Women account for 23% of the population, and children for 33% of whom more than 6 out of 10 are younger than 12 years old.
Approximately 13% of the children are unaccompanied or separated, mainly from Afghanistan.
