Greece: Massive fire breaks out at Samos migrant camp

A major fire forced the last residents of a migrant camp in Greece to evacuate on Sunday night as it raced through makeshift tents. About 300 people were still living in the Vathy camp on the island of Samos. They were due to be transferred to a new, less crowded facility starting on Monday.

Samos is one of the islands in the Aegean Sea where asylum-seekers often arrive when they set out from Turkey to try and reach Europe. In Vathy, they lived in squalid conditions. At its peak, the camp, built for 680 people, held more than 10 times that number.

The migrants who were still awaiting transfer the night of the fire had to move to an empty area near the camp entrance, while 10 unaccompanied minors were already taken to the new facility on Sunday.

Their destination, a closed, high-security camp, was inaugurated just last week. It is the first of five EU-funded facilities in Greece to use surveillance cameras, magnetic entry cards and X-ray scanners. Residents will also have a curfew of 8 p.m.

The EU has invested €276 million ($323 million) in these camps, but rights groups have criticized the new facilities for being too restrictive. "For those who have survived torture, the new highly controlled center means not only the loss of freedom but reliving past traumatic experiences," a Doctors Without Borders psychologist said in a statement.

The facility officially opened its doors to new residents on Monday. Before they entered, security personnel checked them for weapons and dangerous objects.

The facility in Samos is a pilot for the closed migrant camps in Greece. More high-security facilities will follow on the Greek islands of Leros, Lesbos, Kos and Chios, where migrants still live in overcrowded tent camps.