Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-02-02

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Justice minister says government won't back down in fighting vested interests

[02] Effort to winterise hotspots delayed due to lack of space to work, Mouzalas tells ANA from Lesvos

[01] Justice minister says government won't back down in fighting vested interests

"I want to confirm that this government will not take a single step back in the fight against vested interests," he said.

Papangelopoulos spoke of a "Roman orgy" which took place and in which "it wasn't the Greek people didn't participate, but few corrupt people of the ruling class."

"Greek society is fed up with evasions and hypocritical cries. Who and how took the 1.4 billion euros to media and the 400 million euros to political parties? Did they provide guarantees or hot air? What did they do with it? Will they return it in this or the next century?" he said.

[02] Effort to winterise hotspots delayed due to lack of space to work, Mouzalas tells ANA from Lesvos

"One could ask, and it would be a fair question, why these efforts are happening now and not 20 days earlier. The reply that I can give is that 20 days ago we met with great refusal to use other spaces to decongest this place and begin the work. As you can see, we need machinery and people. This capability is given now," he said. Mouzalas appealed once again for a greater capability to temporarily move people, so as to improve conditions further.

As migrants moved in to the new winterised housing units set up by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Moria, Mouzalas thanked the director of the municipality-run Kara Tepe camp for helping decongest Moria so work could take place.

"It is a very difficult project but I think we will succeed," he said. The minister also referred to the prospects for decongesting the islands of migrants, revealing that 700 people had been transferred to the mainland over the past month without disrupting the EU-Turkey Statement.

Accompanying Mouzalas in Moria was UNHCR representative Philippe Leclerc, who said that it was important to ensure that the people currently in Moria do not suffer more than they have already suffered.

Asked about the delays in winterising the camps on the islands, Leclerc said that it had been impossible to predict the severe cold weather experience by the island, since nothing similar had happened in its recent history.

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