Fire Sweeps Through Greece’s Largest Refugee Camp On Virus Lockdown

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Fire swept through Greece’s largest refugee camp, that had been placed under COVID-19 lockdown, leaving more than 12,000 migrants in emergency need of shelter on the island of Lesbos on Wednesday.

In dramatic scenes overnight, the migrants at Moria refugee camp fled fires that broke out at multiple points and gutted much of the camp and surrounding hillside olive groves. Protests also broke out involving migrants, riot police, and firefighters.

“It has been a very difficult night,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said, adding that a state on emergency would be declared later Wednesday on the island.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was convening an emergency ministerial meeting Wednesday morning to examine the situation in Moria and decide on measures to be taken, the prime minister’s office said.

The commander of Greece’s intelligence service, the civil protection head and the chief of defense general staff were participating in the meeting, the office said.

European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, who is responsible for migration matters, tweeted that he had been in touch with Mitsotakis and “assured him that the European Commission is ready to assist Greece immediately at all levels at this difficult time.”

Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said she had “already agreed to finance the immediate transfer and accommodation on the mainland of the remaining 400 unaccompanied children and teenagers” who had been living in the camp.

“The safety and shelter of all people in Moria is the priority,” Johansson tweeted.

Some 12,500 people were living at the Moria camp and the surrounding area, where additional restrictions have been imposed over the past week after a Somali man who had returned to the camp after being granted refugee status tested positive for the coronavirus.

There were no reports of injuries.

The fires broke out overnight, police and fire officials on the island told The Associated Press, adding the cause of the blazes, as well as the full extent of the damage, remained unclear. They did not confirm local reports that the fires had been set deliberately in protest at the lockdown measures but said firefighters had “met resistance” from some camp residents.

Petsas said arson was being considered as a possible cause.

Before dawn, riot police set up cordons along a highway near the camp to restrict the movements of migrants.

Health authorities on Tuesday said 35 people at the camp had been confirmed infected with the virus so far after a major testing drive was ordered at the overcrowded facility. Those with confirmed infections were being kept in isolation at a separate site that was not affected by the fire, officials said.

Lesbos was Europe’s busiest crossing point in 2015-16 for illegal migration during a massive westward movement of refugees, many fleeing war in Syria and Iraq and traveling through Turkey. After that wave of migration, Greece set up camps on Lesbos and four other islands, helped with European Union funding, and more recently also set up a network of camps on the mainland.

Firefighters on Lesbos were also battling two other forest fires on the west of the island Wednesday.