Greek police move asylum-seekers to new camp

KARA TEPE, Greece — Greek police are moving hundreds of migrants to an army-built camp on the island of Lesbos Thursday after a fire destroyed an overcrowded facility, leaving them homeless for days.

Wearing masks and white coveralls, police escorted migrants camped out on a roadside to the new site in the island’s Kara Tepe area.

The notoriously squalid Moria camp burned down last week, leaving more than 12,000 people in need of emergency shelter.

Thursday’s operation included 70 female police officers and no violence was reported. “As long as it is peaceful, we believe it is a good move,” said Astrid Castelein, head of the U.N. Refugee Agency’s office on Lesbos. “Here on the street it is a risk for security, for public health, and it’s not dignity which we need for everyone.”

Authorities said the fires had been set deliberately by a small group of inhabitants angered by COVID19 lockdown restrictions. Six Afghans, including two minors, have been arrested on suspicion of arson.

Most of the migrants made homeless set up makeshift shelters made of sheets, blankets, reeds, and cardboard along a stretch of road near the gutted camp.

The new site consists of large family tents erected in an old army shooting range by the sea. By late Wednesday night, it had a capacity of around 8,000 people, according to the UNHCR, but only around 1,100 mostly vulnerable people had entered.

New arrivals are tested for the coronavirus, registered and assigned a tent.

“This is an operation for the protection of public health and with a clear humanitarian mission,” the police said in a statement.

It said 450 people had been moved to Kara Tepe on Thursday morning.