Moriales migrants: European countries agree to take in minors after fire

Germany says 10 European countries have agreed to take in 400 unaccompanied minors who fled Greece’s largest immigrant camp when it was destroyed by fire.

Most will go to Germany and France, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters on Friday.

About 13,000 people lived in squalor in the Moria camp on Lesbos.

The families have been sleeping in the fields and on the roads after fleeing the fire on Wednesday, as authorities scramble to find accommodation for them.

Near the ruins of Moria, island residents blocked roads to prevent charities from delivering aid and said they were against building new tents.

But the Greek army then used helicopters to get to the scene and began installing replacement accommodation.

After visiting the area, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas announced that the devastated camp would be replaced by a modern facility on the same site.

The Moria camp was initially designed to house 3,000 migrants. People from 70 countries were welcomed there, most of them from Afghanistan.

By Bethany Bell, BBC News, Lesbos

Migrants from the burned-out Moria camp are holding a protest in front of police barriers that prevent them from moving to other parts of the island.

Singing and banging on plastic bottles, they march up and down a stretch of the coastal road, demanding the right to leave Lesbos.

One person carried a large piece of cardboard adorned with the message: “We don’t want food, we want freedom.” Another banner read: “Moria kills all lives.”

Many local Greeks also want migrants to leave the island.

They strongly oppose plans to rebuild a temporary camp. The sanitary conditions are appalling. There is little running water and washing is difficult.

“Now is the time to shut down Moria for good,” Vangelis Violatzis, a local municipal leader in Lesbos, told AFP news agency.

How to deal with the massive arrivals of immigrants, mainly to Italy and Greece, has divided the EU for years.

Italy and Greece have accused the richest countries in the north of not doing more, while several nations in the center and east are openly resisting the idea of ​​accepting a migrant quota.

Other countries expected to host children include Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Portugal, according to German reports.

The Moria fire was “a strong reminder to all of us of what we need to change in Europe,” the interior minister said.

But a group of charities and NGOs has written to the German government saying more must be done for all migrants, not just minors.

On Thursday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the migration crisis was a problem for Europe and that the EU needed concrete action to tackle it.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Mitsotakis by phone and said she had agreed that Germany would keep some of the migrant children.

Touring the burning site of Moria on Thursday, Schinas said it was “inconceivable” that the EU did not yet have a unified immigration policy.

He said the Commission’s proposals for a new pact on migration and asylum, to be presented on September 30, “would put an end to this unacceptable situation.”

The fires broke out in more than three locations overnight Tuesday, according to local fire chief Konstantinos Theofilopoulos. Other fires left the camp almost completely destroyed.

The fires started hours after reports that 35 people had tested positive for Covid-19 at the camp. Authorities quarantined the facility last week after a Somali migrant was confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus.

Since then, eight of the 35 who tested positive for Covid-19 are believed to have been found and isolated.

Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said the fires “started with asylum seekers due to the quarantine imposed”. Some of the people infected with the virus had reportedly refused to live in isolation with their families.

However, it did not say that the fires were an intentional act of arson intended to destroy the camp.

But some immigrants told BBC Persian that the fire had broken out after fighting between the immigrants and Greek forces in the camp.

Greece has sent three ships to Lesbos to provide accommodation for some 2,000 immigrants. The Blue Star Chios ferry, which has the capacity to hold 1,000 people, has docked at the port of Sigri on Lesbos. Two warships have also been provided.

But officials have also increased security on the island. Military personnel, riot police and water cannons have arrived at the scene.

On Thursday, in a parking lot in front of a supermarket, hundreds of migrants, including families with young children, waited for bottled water and food to be distributed.

“There is no food, there is no milk for the baby,” Congolese migrant Natzy Malala, who had a newborn baby and an eight-year-old girl, told Reuters news agency.

But there is strong resistance from the locals for a new camp to shelter them. “We do not want another camp and we will oppose any construction work. We have faced this situation for five years, it is time for others to carry this burden,” said local leader Vangelis Violatzis.