German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday their countries had agreed to a deal that would allow 400 unaccompanied minors from the Greek migrant camp to move to other parts of the European Union, according to government sources in Berlin.Details of the plan are expected to be announced later Thursday by Merkel, whose country currently holds the EU Council Presidency.
The final figure represents an estimate and could change depending on ongoing negotiations, the source said. It is also not known which countries would accept minors.
A total of 13,000 people lived in the overcrowded Moria refugee camp, the largest in Europe. The camp was destroyed in a fire earlier this week that left thousands in need of emergency housing.
At a press conference on the Mediterranean island of Corsica on Wednesday, Macron said that “terrible images, terrible reality” meant that “we must show solidarity with Greece and live up to European values” .
Thousands of asylum seekers languished on the sides of Greek roads on Thursday homeless and starving, as government efforts to create new temporary shelters were delayed.
Many of them were families with young children, who spent a second night in the open air, without tents or even basic bedding. Some of the homeless migrants had to travel to the nearest villages to find water and other supplies.
Read more: Opinion: Moria migrant camp in Greece is the EU’s fiery failure
Red Cross: refugees must be evacuated
Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Thursday that it was a “humanitarian imperative” for the EU to evacuate migrants, following the ‘fire.
“There is an urgent need to move migrants from the Greek islands to the mainland,” Rocca said at a virtual press conference in Geneva.
“Thousands of people live in unacceptable conditions on the Greek islands,” said Rocca.
“This is a European crisis which requires concrete acts of solidarity on the part of the EU Member States. Just containing people is not the solution, ”he added.
Read more: Moria refugee camp tragedy reignites political controversy in Germany
Greece: the fires were fires
The island of Lesvos is the main port of entry for arrivals in Greece, a member state of the EU, because, due to its proximity to Turkey. The Moria camp had long since exceeded its official capacity on several occasions.
Greek authorities said the fires that destroyed much of the camp were deliberately started, with the first Tuesday evening being started by residents angered by the quarantine measures imposed to contain a COVID-19 outbreak after 35 people had tested positive.
Read more: Europe’s largest refugee camp braces for COVID-19 outbreak
The situation angered residents, who have long expressed their frustration with the camp. A local group blocked a side road to the camp to prevent machines from reaching the camp to remove debris.
Moria community leader Yiannis Mastroyannis defended the protesters, saying they were peaceful and residents of the village and outlying areas just wanted a return to normal, with no new tents at the fire-ravaged site .
“In recent days we have experienced unprecedented situations with daily fires,” said Mastroyannis.
“We have reached our limits. We are anxious, we do not feel safe, we have had enough, we no longer know how to act, ”he added.
jcg / sms (dpa, AP)
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Everything burned down at night
A fire broke out in several places around the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos late on the night of Tuesday, September 8. This led authorities to suspect arson. Some in the camp have suggested that locals started the fires, but there are other reports that point to the migrants themselves.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
In the darkness
All the residents of the desperately overcrowded camp managed to find safety. According to media reports, many migrants fled to nearby hills and forests. Some are said to have started walking towards Mytilene, the island’s capital. No fatalities or injuries were reported.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Life in danger
La Moria was originally designed to accommodate up to 2,800 people. When the fires broke out, it contained around 12,600. Living conditions in the camp were dire before the fire. Looking at this photo taken afterwards, it’s obvious that no one will be able to live there again anytime soon – at least not under human conditions.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Pixelated camp
Anyone who hopes to see satellite images on Google Maps of the camp, located on the eastern shore of Lesvos, just 15 kilometers from the Turkish coast, is out of luck. The site has been pixelated. “Google itself does not pixelate satellite images,” the company told DW, referring to third-party entities that provide satellite images. It is not clear why the camp was digitally altered.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
A clear picture
This aerial view of the same area shows that the camp has been significantly expanded. In the previous Google Maps image, the house with the red roof is alone, but in the most recent photo it appears to have been swallowed up by the camp.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Look into the past
The camp is not pixelated on Google Street View. While pixelated satellite images on Google Maps are from 2020, those in Street View are from December 2011 – before there was even a camp. At the time, there was only a former military barracks. It was not until October 2015 that Greece started registering asylum seekers at the site before taking them to the mainland.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
From stopovers to long stays
When this photo was taken in October 2015, the refugees only stayed at the camp for a short time. This changed dramatically in March 2016, when the EU signed its so-called refugee agreement with Turkey. Since then, refugees have had to endure long stays before being sent to other EU countries or being deported.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Wait and wait and wait
Due to the EU-Turkey agreement, refugees are no longer allowed to travel to the Greek mainland as Turkey would then no longer be obliged to welcome them. But as EU states disagree on who should host the number of refugees, people are staying in the camp for increasingly longer periods. The overcrowded camp is populated with many people from a wide range of countries – no wonder there are tensions.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
When tensions overflow
These tensions first erupted in September 2016, in the form of violent conflict in which fires were started and much of the camp was destroyed. At the time, there were only 3,000 migrants in the camp. A few months later, several hundred migrants set fire to containers from the European Asylum Agency in the camp to protest the slow processing of asylum applications.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Fire and death
There was another major fire in Moria in September 2019. What started as a fire in an adjacent olive grove quickly spread to the camp itself. Less than half an hour later, another fire broke out in the camp, killing a mother and her baby. At the time, Moria was home to some 12,000 people.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Too dangerous to visit
In August, Armin Laschet, the first from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, visited the camp. Its state is the most populous in Germany and the politician has expressed a desire to see the so-called wild section of the camp located outside of its closed boundaries. However, this part of the visit was quickly canceled for security reasons as the general mood was again tense, with many migrants chanting “Moria free”.
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Hell on earth – Moria refugee camp in Greece and its tortured history
Now what?
An overcrowded camp with appalling sanitary and medical conditions as well as ethnic tensions – then the first coronavirus infections – life in Moria refugee camp was disastrous before this week’s fire. But what will happen now? Is this the end of Moria, or perhaps the time to create new, more humane living conditions? It is devastating that no one can answer this question.
Author: Marco Müller
