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Columns of smoke rise above the ashes and twisted metal. In many places, this is all that remains of Europe’s largest refugee camp.
Just a few days ago, the Moria camp on Lesbos was home to thousands of children and their families. Now all that remains are the smoking ruins and the jagged outlines of the burned out tents.
Helicopters and light aircraft buzz over the devastation, trying to cope with the remaining fires. The camp is still a tinderbox of dry wood, tents and living containers. A young man asks the police if he can access a part of the camp to collect his things, but a small fire has just started and is growing. The police shake their heads and tell him to come back tomorrow to check if there is anything left.
In other parts of the camp, young people emerge from the smoke, dragging belongings they can rescue.
Somaya, 27, with a degree in political science from Afghanistan, sits calmly holding a bundle of her remaining possessions. Until Tuesday she lived in a part of the camp assigned to single women. “Everything happened very fast,” he said. “The police helped us out and for a few minutes [later] our entire section was burned in the fire. “
Since Tuesday night, he has been sleeping on the street along with thousands of others. “We had a very bad night last night,” he said, “we have nothing.”
Ali, who is 19 years old and lives alone in Moria, says people are struggling to cope. On Wednesday night, people huddled outside supermarkets and outside the police station when it started to get cold. “We have nowhere else to go,” he says.
Although food has been delivered to some of those who fled the camp, Ali has not eaten in almost two days. “Everything is very bad and [getting] worse, ”he says. “We don’t know what will happen to us.”
Faris Al-Jawad, from the Médecins Sans Frontières charity, said his teams had been treating babies with smoke inhalation, as well as children who had been on the streets for more than two days. The authorities’ response was “lackluster,” he said. People should be immediately evacuated to the mainland and other European countries, he added.
Across the island, the fire has caused anger, outrage, and despair, and divided the community over what would come next. Some locals express their solidarity with the refugees, but many hope that the camp will not be rebuilt. On Thursday, two trucks blocked the road to prevent construction vehicles from reaching the burned ruins of the camp.
The mayor of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, Stratis Kytelis, is among those who oppose a new camp and told local media that he will not accept any reopening of the Moria facility.
Three miles down the road, other refugees in the smaller Kara Tepe camp have been sharing their food and comforting those who fled the flames in Moria, but they can do little to provide shelter. There appear to be no official plans to help relocate people who have lost their homes and shelters, and there are no signs of ferries on their way to provide a place for people to sleep.
For now, the thousands who fled Moria have nowhere to go. The 35-year-old family of Mohammed, who worked as a government employee in Afghanistan, are among those facing another night on the street. “Please,” he says simply, “this situation is unbearable.”
