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(ANSAmed) - ATHENS, 18 NOV - The ongoing refugee crisis inGreece continues to lurch from one tragedy to the next with thedeath of a nine-month old baby at the notoriously overcrowdedMoria reception center on the island of Lesvos the latest in along line of black pages in what continues to be an extremelysad story.

The Greek arm of NGO organization Meicins Sans Frontieres(Doctors Without Borders) confirmed at the weekend that a babyhad died a few days ago in hospital after being admitted withsevere dehydration. Despite receiving emergency care inhospital, the infant did not survive.

"The MSF team has confirmed the information with the hospital.

We are overwhelmed by this new tragedy," said a statement byeicins Sans Frontieres via their Twitter account.

The organisation urged the Greek government and EU once again toact quicker and take drastic measures to resolve the currentmass overcrowding and squalid living conditions refugees faceespecially on the island camps. "Children are dying in Europe due to neglect of health care andunacceptable living conditions; nothing has improved nearly fouryears after the EU-Turkey agreement. It's outrageous and cannotgo on. The mental and physical health of people at Moria isconstantly at risk. Greece and the European Union must actimmediately!"This latest death another dark stain in the history of Greece'srefugee crisis which exploded in 2015, stabilized somewhat from2016-18 but has once again blew up in a big way in 2019.

Approximately 15,000 people are staying in and around the Moriacamp on Lesvos, cramped into a space more than four times itscapacity of just 3,000.

Greece continues to struggle with the ongoing migrant crisis,which has begun to spiral out of control since the summer. Theisland camps are desperately overcrowded and the flows of peoplecoming into the country continues unabated.

According to the latest official data, a total of 10,882migrants crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands from September16 to October 16 alone. And the influx has continued in theearly part of November.

The government has begun to step up a program of transferringmigrants from island camps to alternative sites on the mainland,but progress is slow and exacerbated by continuing incomingflows of people as well as opposition from locals in themainland communities where the state wants to build new orextend existing facilities.

Although Greece's parliament finally approved a newcontroversial bill on asylum earlier this month, in an effort totackle the growing refugee crisis, there has been strongopposition from SYRIZA and human rights groups, who havelabelled the new stricter laws "a naked attempt to block accessto protection and increase deportations." The controversial and complex 237-page bill entitled"international protection and other provisions" is mainlyfocused on asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, andthe idea is that it will empower Greece to process asylum claimsquicker, as well as send more people illegible back to Turkey.

But the bill is being seen as inhumane, especially by humanrights groups. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR alsoexpressed its concerns about the legislation, saying that itcould weaken the protection of refugees.(ANSAmed).

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Another week, another migrant tragedy in Greece - Analysis - ANSAMed - ANSAmed