Greece will build a permanent migrant reception center on the Lesbos island to relocate the overcrowded refugee camp that was destroyed by fire last week, Reuters reported referring to the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

A fire at the Moria reception center last week left more than 12,000 people homeless, forcing most of them to sleep outdoors.

Mitsotakis said the construction of a new reception center on the island to replace the infamous squalid and overcrowded facility in Moria would be a chance to change the policy on incoming migrants.

“We want to turn this problem into an opportunity,” he said. “Europe should be a lot more involved in the management of the new centre wherever we finally decide it should be,” he told a news conference.

Thus, he rejected the protests of the inhabitants of Lesbos, who opposed the creation of a new center, as well as migrants demanding resettlement from the island.

Authorities have begun placing migrants in temporary tents outside the main port of Mytilini. A serious study identified "dozens" of COVID-19 cases.

Officials are concerned about the possibility of an uncontrolled spread of the disease from the Moria camp, which was quarantined before the fire.