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A new modern and safe centre for migrants and refugees with a capacity of 3,500 people is about to open in the coming days on the island of Lesbos. It is located between Efthalos and Skala Sikamnia and aims to contribute to the maximum extent towards the normalization of the situation associated with the reception and registration of those people who are arriving in the area from the opposite shores of Asia Minor.

"It is a modern and safe centre, built according to all the necessary requirements, in which only professionals will work," said Paul Kornou, coordinator of the campaign organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) on the island of Lesbos, which has built the centre and will manage it.

The value of the built centre amounts to 1 million euro and the IRC has covered the costs entirely with its own funds. It will also cover the cost of operation of the centre in the first year, i.e. the costs throughout 2016, which will amount to 5 million euro.

Today only makeshift camps are built on the island, such as the one in Moriah

The IRC migrant and refugee centre will employ a total of 70 people with one-year contracts and full employment rights and 90% of them will be recruited from the villages near the centre, mainly from Molivos and Sikamnia.

The centre is built on the beach and protected from the winds. It will operate on two levels - one will accommodate up to 2,000 migrants and refugees and the other will secure the temporary stay of those who are arriving until they are directed to the registration centre in Moriah, which has a capacity of about 1,500 people.

As stated by Tyler Jab, crisis management coordinator at IRC, "The centre is not hastily made to deal with the critical situation. It has accommodation facilities for women and children, family reunification services, medical services and psychological help, even premises with screens where the refugees will obtain information in 6 languages ​​on where they are and what they should do afterwards." Of course, such a centre cannot but have dining rooms, bathrooms and laundry rooms.

The centre has been built with the consent of the local authorities, local self-government bodies, the police and coastguard, having held the required meetings and conversations with the locals and having obtained their agreement as well as the permission of the relevant archaeological institutions before the construction works started.