Greece’s public order minister on Wednesday promised a stricter reaction against third country nationals temporarily hosted on a handful of Greek isles after landing from the opposition Turkish coast, part of the ongoing migrant/refugee crisis that first erupted in 2015, underling that “…anyone that burned and stabbed will face the law. They will not move around Greece.”
The statement by Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis came after a particularly violent spate of violence on the eastern Aegean island of Samos – the closest major Greek isle to the Turkish mainland – this week.
Chrysohoidis, a top minister in past PASOK governments who was tapped to assume the current portfolio in the Mitsotakis government, posted the statement on his FB page, accompanied by a video of the violence on Samos last Monday evening.
Twelve foreign nationals, all asylum seekers between the ages of 15 to 34, were arrested by police in relation to the incident. Two of the suspects have been charged with attempted homicide. Another 19-year-old man has been charged with arson.
Initial press reports claimed the clashes involved groups of Syrian young adults and teens pitted against Afghans of the same age groups.
