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On the Greek island of Samos, a fire broke out near the refugee camp there on Tuesday night. “There is a fire on the edge of the registration center,” Vathy Mayor Giorgos Stantzos told the dpa news agency. The camp tents would not burn, but he was concerned, Stantzos said.
Several Greek media also reported a fire near the camp. The fire reportedly broke out between 200 and 300 meters above the refugee camp. Images and videos were also circulating on social media showing large flames in the dark.
According to the daily “Kathimerini”, 20 firefighters are deployed with various vehicles.
Just a few days ago, the Moria refugee camp on the nearby island of Lesbos was almost completely destroyed in a major fire. Around 12,000 migrants were left homeless. According to the Greek government, the fires were started by migrants to force people to leave the fields and the island. Recently, six suspects were arrested in connection with the fire.
However, the Moria camp has been overcrowded many times over the years, after two migrants tested for positive corona, there were initially riots, then fires broke out at various locations in the camp.
Positive corona tests also in Samos
According to the Greek Migration Ministry, around 4,600 migrants live in the Vathy refugee camp, near the town of the same name on the island of Samos, but the camp only has a capacity of around 650 places. Two people tested positive for the corona virus at the camp on Tuesday. (Read a report on conditions in Samos here.)
Greek politicians have been warning against the “Moria tactic” since the Lesbos fire. Therefore, fires could also be started in other refugee camps, especially if people were brought to the mainland or to central and northern Europe. Besides Moria on Lesbos, there are also refugee camps on the islands of Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos.
In view of the burning camp, the migrants in Lesbos are demanding that they be allowed to leave the island immediately. However, most of them have yet to complete their asylum applications. The Greek government insists that migrants must go through the normal asylum process.
The federal government had last offered to host 1,553 people from the Greek islands. There are said to be 408 families with children who have already been recognized as vulnerable in Greece.
