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At 9:00 p.m. on September 8, members of non-governmental organizations operating in the Moria reception and identification center, after consulting with the commander of the structure and the head of the police guard, undertook to locate in the “zone 8 “from the camp to 35 coronavirus patients and 80 of their relatives in order to transport them for quarantine in a fenced enclosure (former Cava” Santo “), 300 meters from the KYT. The Afghans, who were also in zone 8 of the camp, noticed the movements of the NGO members. Some 200 people surrounded the volunteers and demanded their departure, while the tension quickly escalated, with foreigners throwing stones at the volunteers, injuring them and forcing them to flee.
An hour later and as the police rushed to the scene with orders to normalize the situation, the tension spread. Afghans in Zone 9 of the camp destroyed a quarantine area run by the NGO “Refugees for Refugees” and “released” 81 patients who were in quarantine. At 11 pm. The Afghan insurgents from zones 8 and 9, a total of 500 people, got up and moved to the outer quarantine zone of the KYT (old building of the “Santo” Cava), where two hours before an attempt was made to transfer the 35 new COVID-19 patients. Fires broke out around the building and in the olive grove next door, which spread due to the strong wind.
Thus began the night of September 8, the events that led to the complete destruction of the structure in Moria. Official documents and official reports released by “K” show that shortly before midnight that night, Afghans set up makeshift barricades outside the camp’s north gate with burning trash cans and chemical toilets. Soon after, Afghans from the youth wing attacked the police and vandalized the offices of the First Reception Service, while over the course of the night 200 foreigners destroyed the facilities of the UN Asylum Service and UNHCR, which were located within headquarters. Due to the fire, the total evacuation of the KYT was ordered, moving the inmates of the structure along the Thermi – Panagioudas road, to the place “Tabakaria”, where the police set up a block to prevent foreigners from reaching the city of Mytilene.
The fire was contained the next morning, but had previously destroyed almost all the shops and settlements where the foreigners lived, as well as the facilities of the First Reception and Asylum services, the Hellenic Police, Europol and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In fact, people who returned to the KYT at the first light of day, along with foreigners searching for personal items that may have been rescued, started new fires that resulted in the total destruction of the structure.
After the end of the episodes, it was formed by EL.AS. A special investigation team in which police officers from the Subdirectorate for Security of the State of Mytilene, Antiterrorism and Security of the State of Attica participated to identify the people who participated in the events. The investigation was assisted by the EYP, while the day after the disaster, the Minister of Civil Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, also went to Lesbos, for better coordination of police operations. He even stayed on the island until the day before yesterday, Friday.
As part of the investigation, the policemen collected videos that had been posted on the media and social networks, while examining foreigners, eyewitnesses to the incidents. The “key” testimony that accelerated events was that of the KYT Afghan community representative, 42. He told police that a group of at least 15 young Afghans from Zone 12 of the camp had set themselves on fire and named five of his compatriots who had been arrested. The sixth detainee was identified in a 1.5 minute video posted on the morning of September 10 on a Facebook profile. In it, a young man is shown setting fire to the bushes with a piece of burning cardboard. In fact, at the time of his arrest, he was wearing exactly the same clothing that he was wearing in the video in question on the night of the fire.
The case file
Four of the six defendants are 19 years old and were arrested on Lesbos. The other two are 17 years old and were found in accommodation structures in Katerini and Thessaloniki, where they were transferred the day after the disaster to Moria along with more than 200 unaccompanied minors. A lawsuit was brought against them, among other things, for forming a criminal organization and arson. The four adults were scheduled to apologize to investigator Mytilene yesterday.
The underage Afghans, respectively, are expected to apologize early next week. In their apologies prior to the investigation, however, they denied having participated in the events. The investigation by the Greek Police continues to identify other foreigners who participated in the arson of the Moria camp, while trying to find some “suspicious” communication from the six detainees, in the hours before the incidents at the KYT.
