How would you describe the current situation on the Greek island of Lesbos, where the Moria refugee camp with 13,000 refugees burned down on Tuesday and Wednesday?
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The situation on the ground is now extremely confusing and chaotic. One of the reasons is that the police have set up barricades around the camp and are not leaving any non-profit and humanitarian workers there at all. They don’t even let refugees out of the area. Right in Moria or in what is left of it, non-profits now have no chance to operate.
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It is said that fires were started by desperate refugees to get out of the camp. In addition, 35 cases of coronavirus have been reported in Moria… Do you have information on how the fire started?
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No one can verify that at this time. In contrast, the confirmed information is about coronavirus. One of the versions is that the fire was started by refugees, but now it cannot be independently verified. It is more of a probable possibility, but it could also have been an arson attack, because right-wing extremists are also quite active in the area. Another option is a technical problem, because the whole camp was in a catastrophic condition, including wiring and gas equipment.
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Greece sends ships to the area to accommodate at least some of the refugees. Are they in place yet? And what capacity do they have?
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This morning a private boat with a capacity of about a thousand people arrived. During today or tomorrow, two more military ships should arrive, which should have a capacity of several hundred people. The Greek government is sending about 3,500 tents to the area, which they should set up in the surrounding area.
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The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, offered that his country could receive up to a thousand people from the destroyed camp. Have you noticed similar offers from other countries?
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Not so specific, but as far as I know, the Netherlands and Portugal have joined the offer. But there was no talk of specific numbers.
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Did only long-term refugees live in Moria, or did they also tie up those recently detained by the Coast Guard at sea?
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Whoever came to Lesbos was first placed in a ten-day quarantine, then went to Moria. Migrants caught directly at sea are distributed according to where it is closer – to Chios, Lesbos and other islands.
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What is the longest time a refugee could spend in crowded Moria?
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There are cases where people spend several years there. Asylum procedures are extremely slow, the Greeks, of course, place more emphasis on families with small children, there the process takes several months, and even that is catastrophically slow.
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What is the composition of the people where they come from?
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The most common nationalities are Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, many people are also from Pakistan, followed by Congo, Bangladesh, Somalia, Eritrea and other African countries.
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Médecins Sans Frontières teams cannot reach people in a burned-out refugee camp #Moria ????????. The locals are blocking the way. Their frustration with government inaction is understandable, but it is unacceptable for their anger to fall on the most vulnerable. Everyone should have access to health care. https://t.co/LDpeoQPEZO
– Jan Böhm (@janbohm) September 10, 2020
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And what about gender and age?
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There have been more men lately. In the last two years, the journey has been extremely difficult, and the situation in Turkey has deteriorated. That is why younger men in particular are taking the journey. But there is also a large percentage of mothers with children and several hundred children without parents.
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The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the Commission’s priority is to ensure that people do not go homeless. There is a chance that this problem can be solved quickly, say, in weeks… There were 13,000 people living in the camp, and the ships you mentioned offer barely a few thousand of them solutions.
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For example, Doctors Without Borders has called the situation on Lesbos a humanitarian catastrophe for the past three or four years. People didn’t really do well there, they didn’t have facilities, social and hygienic conditions or medical help. So now there is a paradoxical situation – what happened in the camp may be good news in the end. People will now find that the situation has worsened, but it’s just from survival to survival.
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It would be positive if a wave of solidarity arose now, when the individual states of the European Union decided to accept some people or to build a permanent structure on the island with better parameters. But I do not dare to speculate how quickly this will happen, because the Greek Government is slow, it does not want to solve the problem and it wants to get rid of those people, because they represent a huge burden for it.
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The Greeks may take advantage of the situation and put more pressure on resettlement. In a week, the 3,500 tents may be set up, and in a month or two, in an optimistic scenario, relocation to Germany and other countries that are ready for it could begin. But if it will be a thousand people, eight thousand or even just four hundred, I dare not guess, it would be a lot of speculation.
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