Some 12,500 people were said to be living at the camp, which has been under COVID-19 lockdown.
The Greek government declared a state of emergency, and Greek minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos called the situation in Lesbos an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis.” That it is. This crisis has been aided by Turkey, which has been encouraging illegal mass migration into Greece. Turkey has been helping illegal Muslim migrants to get into Greece, and fanning their hopes of using Greece as a means to enter into the wealthier areas of the European Union. Lesbos “has been a magnet for men, women and children moving westward from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and ever more increasingly western Africa,” all hoping to illegally enter the EU.
“Echoing other government officials who had alluded to arson, Koumoutsakos said it appeared the blaze broke out ‘as the result of the discontent’ among camp residents over lockdown measures being prolonged following a positive virus test for a Somali asylum seeker.”
“Thousands need aid after fire destroys Europe’s largest refugee camp,” by Helena Smith, Guardian, September 9, 2020:
Thousands of people urgently require emergency shelter and aid after a fire destroyed Europe’s largest refugee camp, on the Greek island of Lesbos.
As the Athens government declared a state of emergency and a delegation of officials rushed to the north-eastern Aegean island, the sheer scale of devastation wrought by the overnight blaze became increasingly evident.
In the mangled wreckage of gutted facilities, incinerated tents and blackened containers, Moria was no more. The camp whose overcrowded and unsanitary conditions had spawned global outrage since its inception in 2015 had been erased.
“At this moment the reception centre has been completely destroyed,” Greece’s alternate migration minister, Giorgos Koumoutsakos, told reporters, saying it was miraculous there had been no deaths or injuries. “As a result, thousands of people are homeless.”
Calling the situation an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis”, the politician said the coronavirus pandemic had created “exceptionally demanding” circumstances on the island, long at the forefront of refugees fleeing war-stricken homelands for the west. Eyewitnesses reported terrified and traumatised residents fleeing the hilltop facility through thick, acrid smoke laced with the stench of burning plastic.
At least three dozen people living in the camp had been diagnosed with Covid-19 before the fire erupted. Local islanders’ fears that the virus could spread were exacerbated when authorities admitted that by late afternoon on Wednesday they had only managed to locate eight of them.
Echoing other government officials who had alluded to arson, Koumoutsakos said it appeared the blaze broke out “as the result of the discontent” among camp residents over lockdown measures being prolonged following a positive virus test for a Somali asylum seeker.
Firefighters who rushed to the scene as flames whipped by gale force winds enveloped the camp spoke of the fire bursting into life in at least three places, suggesting it had been deliberately lit…..