Blaze destroys Greece’s largest migrant camp after lockdown
● Authorities declare state of emergency but no report of casualties
A major fire swept through a notoriously over crowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos early yesterday, burning through conta in er housing and leaving thousands of people in need of emergency shelter.
Complicating matters, the Moria camp was under a coronavirus lockdown from an outbreak when flames gutted much of it overnight. Authorities scrambled to find a way to house now-homeless camp residents without cre - ating more risk of the virus spreading.
“The combination of migration and the pandemic in these conditions is creating an exceptionally demanding situation,” alternate migration minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos said. Civil protection authorities declared a fourmonth state of emergency for public health reasons on Lesbos. Mr Koumoutsakos said it appeared the blaze broke out “as the result of the discontent” of some of Moria’s residents over lockdown imposed after a Somali man, who returned to the camp after being granted asylum, tested positive for the virus this month.
About three dozen Covid-19 cases were detected during subsequent broad testing of the camp population.
“I recognise the difficult circumstances ,” Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, expressing sorrow over the fire. “However, nothing can become an excuse for violent reaction to health checks. And, more so, for unrest of this extent.
The prime minister added: “The situation in Moria cannot continue because it constitutes simultaneously a question of public health, humanity and national security.”
In dramatic night-time scenes, camp inhabitants fled fires that broke out at multiple points and were fanned by gale -force winds, gutting much of the facility and surrounding hillside olive groves. Protests also broke out involving migrants, riot police and firef ighters. There were no reports of injuries.
Aid agencies have long warned of dire living conditions at Moria, where more than 12,500 have been living in and around a facility built to house just over 2,750 people. The camp has become a symbol of what critics have said is the European Union’s failure to humanely handle the migration and refu - gee situation. Under a 2016 deal between the EU and Turkey designed to stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of Europe-bound mi grants and refugees, those arriving on Greek islands like Lesbos from the nearby Turkish coast are held there pending either deportation back to Turkey or the acceptance of their asylum claims. Although the deal dramatically reduced the number of arrivals, delays in processing asylum claims and the continued arrivals of hundreds of asylum seekers led island camps to quickly exceed their capacity. Successive Greek governments have called on other European countries to share the burden of housing asylum-seekers.
Regional fire chief Konstantinos Theo filopoulos said the fire started in more than three places in quick succession, and that firefighters were hampered by protesting residents from battling the flames.
Before dawn, riot police set up cordons along a highway near the camp to restrict the movements of the camp’s residents. Mr Koumoutsakos said initial reports indicated there had been no loss of life in the blaze. He said the more than 400 unaccompanied children and teenagers who had been living in the camp were now in hotels or other safe areas.
New temporary accommodation would be set up for residents left homeless by the fire, “preferably not near the Moria area and, necessarily, obviously not all together”, he said.
In Moria, protests against living conditions and fires have broken out in the past, but yesterday’s blaze was by far the largest.