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Pregnant women in labor lie on the ground, people cannot eat or drink – conditions after the fire in the Lesbos refugee camp are more catastrophic than ever.
“The situation is even more devastating than I would have thought,” said Greens foreign policy spokesperson Ewa Ernst-Dziedic, describing first impressions of her visit to the island of Lesbos, where the Moria refugee camp it was completely destroyed by fire on Wednesday. . There is currently no provision for the nearly 13,000 migrants who have been made homeless.
“There is no official help,” criticized Ernst-Dziedzic. Police officers would also block aid organizations from accessing a large part of the population. For three days, they have been living on the road between Moria and the island’s capital, Mytilini, in plastic bags and self-built houses, the politician described Friday. “People don’t have food or drink, here they die of thirst.” She was “outraged and dismayed.”
Even if the migrants wanted to buy water or food at a nearby gas station with their own money, “they will not be allowed to enter, the gas station is guarded by the police and the refugees cannot enter,” Ernst-Dziedzic said. The local supermarket is already closed anyway. He also saw a pregnant woman in labor, lying on the ground and having to hold on.
© APA / THE GREEN / DAVID PICHLER
Ernst-Dziedzic criticized the “much cited local aid” in any case, “nothing important”. Containers Austria had promised Athens months ago would still “hang” on the Greek mainland because the Greek government had not yet clarified how they would be transported to the island. The green deputy identified here “delaying tactics”. He has the impression, “and this has been further strengthened since my arrival here”, that the situation on the East Aegean island was “deliberately provoked”.
© APA / THE GREEN / DAVID PICHLER
Time and again there are attacks on refugees by right-wing extremist groups. “People are really desperate, they are completely desperate,” said the National Council member, who had already visited the island of Lesbos and Camp Moria in early March when the situation on the Greek-Turkish border threatened to escalate. Now it is “much worse,” he said. Given the current circumstances, despair is growing among the refugees. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that escalated.”
Ernst-Dziedzic does not believe that the fire, which has destroyed the desperately overcrowded camp for years, was started by the refugees themselves. It doesn’t seem like it, and there have been fires in the past that were clearly started by right-wing extremists. The green politician wants to stay in Lesbos until Sunday, meet with aid organizations such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to “find out how acute help can be provided and why nothing has happened for three days. “
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