Lesvos closed controlled access centre (Mavrovouni)
Kara Tepe firing range, Mavrovouni, 81100 Lesvos · Mytilene, North Aegean
The Lesvos closed controlled access centre is a state centre for people in the asylum procedure at Mavrovouni, north of Mytilene, on the site the ministry calls the Kara Tepe firing range. It is run by the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and is in use. The National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026 lists 3,881 places and 835 people counted at this centre.
Key facts
- Type
- Closed controlled access centre (island)
- Run by
- Reception and Identification Service (RIS), Ministry of Migration and Asylum
- Address
- Kara Tepe firing range, Mavrovouni, 81100 Lesvos, Mytilene, North Aegean
- Capacity
- 3,881 places (as at 1 September 2026)Source: National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026
- People counted there
- 835 (as at 1 September 2026)Source: National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026
- Status
- In use (as at 1 September 2026)
- Opened
- September 2020, as a temporary facility after the Moria centre burned down. Converted into a closed controlled access centre in November 2022 (AIDA).
Background
The centre stands on a former army firing range on the coast north of Mytilene. The ministry's own page for it gives 3,840 places on 320 stremmata (a Greek land unit of 1,000 square metres). AIDA's 2025 report describes many residents living in tents and Rubb halls, with shortages of hot water, power cuts and too few medical and interpretation staff. AIDA also reports that the Council of State annulled the permit for a planned replacement centre at Plati-Vastria in decision 1335/2023, and that a new permit was pending.
Reported incidents
No reported incident is listed for this site. An incident is listed only if a mainstream, court, police or official source reports it, so an empty list does not mean that none occurred.
Sources
- National Situational Picture (NSP), Eastern Aegean islands, 1 September 2026 · official source
- Ministry of Migration and Asylum: page of the Lesvos centre (read on 4 October 2026) · official source
- AIDA / ECRE, Country Report Greece, 2025 Update (July 2026) · third-party source, not official
The Ministry of Migration and Asylum publishes a page for each reception structure with its name and address, but no coordinates, and its list is not kept up to date. For the five island centres the figures are those of the National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026. For the mainland they are those of the ministry's reply to a parliamentary question of 6 February 2026 (figures at 31 December 2025), as published by Refugee Support Aegean, with the table of the AIDA country report (July 2026) for June 2025 beside them. Capacity is the figure each source gives, nominal unless the page says otherwise, and is not a headcount; where sources differ, each figure is shown with its date. For Samos and Leros the pre-removal detention places that the ministry's pages describe are subtracted from the NSP figure, and our Samos and Leros pages say so. Positions are placed by hand from map features and addresses and are approximate. No cost is published for any single site. Incidents are listed only where a mainstream, court, police or official source reports them, with the stage reached; an empty list does not mean that none occurred.