Asylum seekers fly from Greece to UK for relocation

The UK-bound flight will return to Greece with 130 Greeks who had been stranded in Britain due to travel restrictions imposed amid coronavirus.

Migrants wearing face masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus board a plane bound for Britain at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens

A group of 16 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and 34 adults have left Greece on a flight to the United Kingdom, where they will be reunited with family members who are already there.

The move is part of a programme to relocate about 1,600 unaccompanied refugee children to European countries.

So far, Luxembourg has taken 12 children and Germany nearly 50, while Finland is to take about 100 later this month.

Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said that a further 22 people are to be relocated to Switzerland.

Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants, including thousands of unaccompanied children, are living in squalid conditions in overcrowded camps on several Greek islands after arriving from the nearby Turkish coast.

Many more are housed in camps, apartments and other shelters across the mainland.

Unaccompanied child refugees wearing face masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, board a plane bound for Britain at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens — Unaccompanied child refugees walk towards a plane bound for Britain in Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

The flight heading to the UK will return to Greece with 130 Greeks who had been stranded in Britain due to the travel restrictions imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Migration and Asylum Ministry said.

“It is proof and confirmation that modern challenges that go beyond the borders and capabilities of each country individually are dealt with only with international co-operation and the joining of forces,” alternate migration and asylum minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos said.