Warship races to rescue frozen migrants
GREECE: A warship was dispatched to the island of Lesbos by the Greek navy yesterday to serve as emergency accommodation for thousands of refugees stranded in sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow.
Panos Kammenos, the defence minister, took action after an outcry from the EU and human rights organisations over footage of bedraggled asylum seekers living in tents weighed down by snow and ice at the Moria camp.
Another cold front was due to hit Greece last night.
Local officials said that security measures at the port in Lesbos had been increased to avert ‘‘a potential stampede’’ of migrants onto the navy vessel.
More than 3500 people are stranded in the state-run encampment but only 500 were to be given a place on the ship.
An additional 130 people have been relocated to hotels but many of the rest, 40 per cent of whom are children, will remain in the camp. Only two tents out of several hundred have heating and insulation.
Hundreds of migrants sought refuge at a covered swimming centre or in makeshift cafes near the Moria compound.
‘‘Any action at this point is encouraging,’’ Daniel Barney, of Medecins Sans Frontieres, said. ‘‘But it is all too little, too late.’’
Ioannis Mouzalas, the migration minister, insisted in the days before the cold snap that the government had completed winter preparations at about 50 refugee camps across the country.
He pledged that no asylum seeker would be left in the cold.
The EU had allocated €90 million (NZ$135M) in special funding to the cash-strapped government in Athens to improve conditions at the camps before the onset of winter. An aid worker told The Times : ‘‘A new cold snap is expected and nearly everyone in the camp is soaking wet with no dry blankets available and slush seeping through their tents. It is disheartening.’’
Temperatures in Lesbos have fallen to minus 5C and outbreaks of pneumonia and flu have been rife.
‘‘All these emergency moves to help the situation are great, but ultimately they all amount to just a drop in the bucket,’’ Barney said. ‘‘Conditions at the refugee camps are appalling, and islands hosting refugees pouring in from Turkey should be decongested.’’
- The Times