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Police arrested five suspected arsonists after the fire in the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Thousands of homeless migrants refuse to move to new shelters.
Greek security forces arrested five suspected arsonists who reportedly set the Moria camp on fire last week. This was announced by the Greek minister for civil protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis. “The arsonists have been arrested. They are young migrants. Another is still being sought,” he said on state radio ERT. The five alleged arsonists were said in police circles to be Afghans whose asylum applications had been rejected.
“You want to get off the island”
Thousands of homeless migrants refuse to move into newly built makeshift shelters. Instead, they asked again to be allowed to leave the island. “We informed them that they had to go to the facility, but they refused,” said a police representative who did not want to be named. “You want to get off the island.”
The government said only 1,000 migrants have wanted to go to the new temporary camp in the Kara Tepe region, which is already equipped with 5,000 beds and is being expanded. Thousands more, men, women and children, spent the night outside the roadside facility. They fear that living conditions in the new camp are as bad as in Moria.
More than 12,000 people, mainly from Afghanistan, Syria and Africa, were housed in the completely overcrowded camp. But since it burned down last week, most of them have been left without shelter, sanitation or food supplies.
“No one will leave Lesbos at the moment”
Greek authorities believe the fires were deliberately set by refugees to force a relocation of the overcrowded camp. Initial reports indicated that fires broke out in various parts of the camp after several refugees who tested positive for the coronavirus were isolated.
“No one will leave Lesbos without first being in the interim camp,” said the citizen protection minister on Skai radio station.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for European solidarity with a view to the refugee situation. Now is the time to put that spirit into practice, Mitsotakis said.
