Greece mounts late push to assure EU before migration Summit

In a last-minute drive to assure European Union partners that it is getting to grips with a mass influx of refugees, Greece released aerial photographs on Tuesday of new registration centers for refugees on its northern Aegean islands.

The move is part of Athens’ efforts, ahead of an EU summit starting on Thursday, to rebuff criticism by Germany and other EU governments that it has done too little to manage the flow of hundreds of thousands of people arriving on its shores. The biggest migration crisis in Europe since World War Two has provoked strains and recriminations between EU governments. North European officials complain that for months, Greece did little more than wave new arrivals through the country as quickly as possible, without registering most of them.

“We have been accused of not doing enough, but we have done miracles given the number of refugees arriving on our islands and given that it is winter,” a government official said. Video footage and pictures gave a bird’s eye view of the so-called “hotspot” and temporary shelters on the island of Lesbos. On the island of Chios, a row of prefabricated homes for refugees has been set up outside an abandoned factory. On the island of Leros, another entry point into Europe from Turkey, dozens more prefabricated homes have been erected outside a former psychiatric hospital.