Violence erupted on Thursday evening at a temporary shelter for Mideast refugees and irregular migrants on the island of Samos, with initial reports citing 30 injuries, with several people taken to a nearby hospital.
According to reports, groups of Moroccans, Algerians and Pakistanis clashed between themselves, for as yet undetermined reasons. Police later intervened to stop the fracas.
Third world nationals, from as far as Myanmar and sub-Saharan Africa, had taken advantage of the increased refugee flows from Turkey to Greece over the last year and a half in a bid to emigrate to preferred countries in central and western Europe. The closure of numerous European countries’ borders to all but legal entry and a subsequent EU-Turkey readmission protocol stranded upwards of 50,000 people in Greece, many of whom do not enjoy refugee status.
