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Fire in Moria – Six youths in custody
| Reading time: 2 minutes
Those responsible for the fire in the crowded Moria refugee camp are said to be two 17-year-olds and four 19-year-olds. The suspects are Afghans. The crown crisis is coming to a head on Lesbos.
rehe four men and two minors believed to be responsible for the fire in the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos have been arrested. This was reported by the Greek news agency ANA-MPA on Monday evening.
The alleged arsonists are thus four 19-year-old Afghans and two 17-year-old Afghans. They were arrested by the police shortly after the fire almost two weeks ago.
At a first hearing, the suspects are said to have declared, in the presence of a lawyer from Athens, to be innocent; An Afghan compatriot in Moria had accused them of arson because he was a Pashtun and belonged to the Hasara tribe.
12,000 migrants were left homeless
The Moria refugee camp, which was previously completely overcrowded, was almost completely destroyed in a major fire on the night of September 8-9. The authorities quickly assumed that the migrants themselves had set it on fire because the fire broke out in different places at the same time. The roughly 12,000 migrants were left homeless overnight. After that, there was chaos on the island until a makeshift tent camp was set up, to which around 10,000 people have moved so far.
Migrants on Lesbos have long been demanding to be removed from the island entirely; some have been waiting there for more than a year in extremely poor conditions for their asylum decision. Humanitarian organizations also support the demand of the people. However, Athens is sticking to the 2016 EU deal with Turkey.
Consequently, all migrants must remain on the islands until their asylum procedure is completed. Those who do not obtain asylum must return to Turkey. With reference to Corona, Turkey has not accepted migrants with rejected asylum applications for months.
According to the government, 243 refugees have tested positive for the coronavirus on Lesbos. Government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced on Monday that the average age of those infected was 24 and that most cases were asymptomatic. 160 tests were negative, most of them police and officials who came into contact with migrants.