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News World |
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Greece shuts down
migrant detention center
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Greece has shut down a migrant detention centre on the island of Lesbos which human rights groups had criticized for appalling living conditions, a government official said on Monday.
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“The center of Pagani, at the island of Lesbos shut down last night,” Deputy Civil Protection Minister Spyros Vougias told an immigration conference in Athens. The facility, which sheltered about 900 illegal immigrants up to last week, will be overhauled to house about 150 people under improved conditions, Vougias said. Migrants who were held there were moved to other centers in nearby islands. Greece is struggling to cope with rising numbers of illegal migrants crossing the Aegean Sea as a gateway for the EU. Many come from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has been criticized for years by rights group and the UN refugee agency UNHCR for conditions in its detention centers. The Pagani center had come to symbolize the shortcomings, with hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers crammed in with too few toilets, showers and beds.
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03 November 2009, Tuesday
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REUTERS
ATHENS
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Benzer Haberler 
World
