Migrants prepare tea near a new makeshift camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece on Tuesday. Roughly 800 of the thousands of asylum seekers who fled a fire that destroyed Europe's biggest migrant camp have been housed at a temporary site on the island of Lesbos, Greece's migration ministry said. Photo: AFP

Greece will build a new permanent refugee camp on the island of Lesbos in 2021 to replace the facility that burned down in September, the migration minister said Monday.

Contractors have also been selected for new camps on the islands of Samos, Kos and Leros, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi told reporters.

"Our goal is to have the permanent facility operating in the summer of 2021" on Lesbos, he said.

"We are moving forward with an ambitious, EU-funded program for closed camps... facilities where entry will be controlled... [camps] with NATO-style double enclosure," Mitarachi noted.

The minister added that the camps would have fire protection systems and "dignified" living conditions.

A tent camp on Lesbos was hastily put together after the sprawling and notoriously unsanitary camp of Moria, Europe's largest, was destroyed in a September 8 fire.

On Thursday, a sudden downpour flooded part of it and 80 tents had to be replaced.

Mitarachi said the makeshift facility on Lesbos currently houses 7,400 people but the population could be brought down to below 5,000 by summer.

"We are taking steps to shield the camp for winter," he said, noting that housing containers would be brought in from another camp on the island.

Many camp residents have complained that the new Kara Tepe facility, created on a former military firing range, has basic bedding and no electricity or running water.

The minister said nearly 7,500 migrants had left Greece since the start of 2020, with nearly 3,200 additional departures pending.

AFP