On the island of Lesvos, the Greek government is pushing to open a new migrant detention centre – a prison in all but name – miles from anywhere, deep in a pine forest. Guards are stationed at its gates, protecting a camp with no-one in it, for which nobody was consulted, and which nobody wants.
The centre is ready. But it can’t be opened because it is stuck in a protracted legal battle.
This week, CPT Aegean Migrant Solidarity asks you to join us in saying “NO” to the Vastria detention centre. Greece’s Ministry of Migration pushed this project through while sidestepping meaningful public consultation. Its environmental impact – in a protected area – is already “visible and irreversible”.
After a regional challenge in Administrative Court, the government withdrew its “Environmental Impact Assessment.” It was riddled with errors and distortions – the Achilles heel in the government’s case. Withdrawing it bought time to fix it, but the newly amended version repeats the same problems and adds new ones. It is open for public consultation until 11 December 2025. This is our chance to be heard.
CPT Aegean Migrant Solidarity has prepared a rigorous objection, which we will file with the authorities. You can read a summary of six key failures in the new plans and co-sign the objection as well.
Vastria would put thousands of lives at risk. It sits in a pine forest at extreme risk of wildfire, with an emergency exit route planned through dense vegetation. Fires occur frequently in the camps. In a place like that, thousands could be trapped.
Not so long ago, a vocal racist bloc engaged in a violent, far-right insurgency on the island. Vastria was conceived to placate such pressure. Since then, the island’s demographics have been altered, reducing the migrant population through systematic border violence. Nobody wants this camp – not even those it’s meant to reassure with a promise: to remove migrants from the city squares and confine them out of sight. The turn toward segregation is spreading across Europe and North America, and detention is offered as an easy answer.
Now is the moment to act.
