Fires have destroyed Greece’s largest migrant camp, an overcrowded facility on the island of Lesbos, leaving nearly 13,000 people without shelter.
Firefighters battled the blaze at the Moria camp, designed for fewer than 3,000 people, as migrants, many suffering from smoke exposure, fled. It is unclear how the fires began, with some blaming the migrants and others blaming Greek locals.
Police allegedly blocked roads from the camp to prevent migrants entering nearby towns. Many attempted to carry their belongings to the port town of Mytilene but access was cordoned off. Reports suggest many slept in open fields after the fire.
Considerable areas of the sprawling site were burned to cinders, with reports from officials that about 70 percent of containers and tents had been destroyed.
“The situation is unbearable and difficult for us, at the moment we are currently homeless on the roads,” Mohammad Hanif Joya, a 35-year-old Afghan, told reporters as he sat on a road with his family, including four children.
“We saved only the children and ourselves. All our clothes and belongings were burned in the fire.
“Moria is all burned, everyone is on the road under the scorching sun,” he said
Faris al-Jawad from Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, told reporters that his group still did not have clarity on whether there were injuries or deaths.
“It’s fair to say that after five years of trapping people in barbaric and inhumane conditions, at some point something like this was inevitable.
“It seems impossible for everyone to go back to Moria tomorrow, everyone needs to be evacuated to a safe place on the mainland or to other EU countries,” he said.
Marco Sandrone, Lesbos project co-ordinator for MSF added that it was difficult to say what had caused the blaze, with several different fires and protests erupting in the camp.
“It’s a time bomb that finally exploded,” he said, reiterating that people had been kept in “inhumane conditions” at the site for years.
Officials have reported that about 3,000 people are being temporarily housed in tents on Lesbos until alternative shelter can be found.
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis called an emergency meeting to discuss the fire on Wednesday morning, and several ministers have been sent to Lesbos to assess the situation.
The EU has offered to help with the response.
European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen said the main priority was “the safety of those left without shelter.”
EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson also disclosed she has agreed to finance the transfer of 400 unaccompanied teenagers and children to accommodation on the mainland.
Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign minister described the blaze as a “humanitarian disaster” and tweeted about “the distribution of refugees among those willing to accept admission in the EU.”
The Moria Refugee Camp which lies north-east of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos has been overwhelmed by huge numbers of refugees for years.
According to a report by InfoMigrants, about 70% of people in the camp are from Afghanistan but migrants from more than 70 different countries live there.
