Residents on the Eastern Aegean island of Chios are requesting €428,000 in compensation for damages made by illegal immigrants housed in the Vial complex, according to Proto Thema.
The illegal immigrants have expropriated dozens of acres of citrus and vegetable farming areas, destroyed henhouses, and stole “everything from doors, windows, to household appliances, clothes belonging to owners and barrels of wine” from the homes where they were being hosted for long periods of time.
The illegal immigrants even "lowered" fences of hundreds of meters, made "summer" agricultural warehouses, even took tiles from the roofs. These are just some of the looting attributed to the illegal immigrants and refugees who arrived on the island.
Locals on Chios have now made 206 claims for compensation for theft and damage.
The total amount of €428,000 euros is the amount requested by residents of Chios, for illegal acts committed by immigrants and refugees in the area around the Vial hosting structure. These are applications that have been submitted to the committee to make a valuation of damages in plant/animal capital but also in equipment and fixed facilities of the local community of Halki and other neighbouring areas.
The local community of Chalkious is 7 kilometres away from the city of Chios and has a permanent population of about 900 inhabitants. To the south of the village there is the old Vial factory, which in 2016 was transformed into a Reception and Identification Centre. Up to 5,000 illegal immigrants live there despite only having a capacity for just 1,100 people. This has created a suffocating situation in the local community with residents of the Halki community raising the burden of increased migration flows in recent years.
In this context, the financial committee of the municipality of Chios last week approved the minutes of the committee for recording and assessing the damages due to the very large illegal migrant flows that have accumulated on the island. Most of the 206 applications are accompanied by a Police or Forest Service Incident Report, while the committee conducted on-site inspections to record and assess the damage.
Applications are divided into 3 categories. Applications reported for theft of items and products, applications for damage to facilities and crops, and applications for both of the above. In one case, the "intervention" in the estate of a resident of Chios resulted in the removal of 33 rabbits, 80 hens-roosters, 20 pigeons, but also 700kg of citrus fruits, causing damage to the fence of the estate. In another case, accompanied by photos, the illegal immigrants after taking 10 hens caused damage to the owner's crop (1,000 kilos of tomatoes-200 kilos of beans). In almost all cases of theft of animals, the fencing of hundreds of meters of land was lifted.
