Greece: A fire broke out that completely destroyed Greece’s largest migrant camp, Moria on the island of Lesbos, leaving 12,500 migrants who were supposed to be under coronavirus quarantine with no obvious place to go.
Three eyewitnesses said the fire was started as a protest against new mandatory quarantine measures, and the blaze broke out after migrants who had tested positive or had been potentially exposed refused to go into isolation.
The fire sets off the largest emergency to date at a camp that has long been the symbol of Europe’s failure to safely manage and care for people arriving on the continent. Before the pandemic, the camp, known as Moria, was a site for protests, fatal fires and chronic sickness. It was filled many times beyond capacity and was noted by international aid groups as unsafe and inhumane.
It continued to operate only because Greece and Europe were unable to find alternatives.The pressures at the camp grew last week when the first positive coronavirus case was detected. A testing campaign has been arranged and another 35 positive cases, and the camp has been put under lockdown.
Moria’s population was closer to 20,000 at the beginning of the pandemic. As the camp burned, Greece declared a state of emergency on the island, and the whereabouts of the 35 migrants who had tested positive were unclear. The government told that migrants would not be allowed to leave the island.
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