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Thousands more have fled major fires that swept through Greece’s largest refugee camp that had been put under lockdown by coronavirus.
More than 12,000 migrants from the Moria refugee camp emergency shelter on the island of Lesbos.
In dramatic scenes overnight, the refugees fled fires that broke out in various locations, destroying the camp and the surrounding olive groves.
Protests also broke out involving migrants, police and firefighters.
“It was a very difficult night,” said government spokesman Stelios Petsas, adding that a state of emergency would be declared on the island later.
Some 12,500 more people lived in and around Moria camp, where further restrictions were imposed during the following week after a Somali resident tested positive for coronavirus.
It was not reported.
The fires broke out overnight, island police and firefighters told The Associated Press, adding that the cause of the fires, as well as the extent of the damage, remains unclear.
They did not verify local reports that the fires were intentionally protesting the closure measures, but said firefighters had “met resistance” from some citizens of the camp.
Petsas said the arson was noted as an imaginable cause of the fire.
Before dawn, police installed cables along a road near the camp to limit the movement of migrants.
Health officials said Tuesday that another 35 people in the camp had been shown inflamed with the virus so far after a primary control unit was ordered at the overcrowded facilities.
People with the infections shown were isolated in a separate site that was not affected by the fire, authorities said.
Lesbos was Europe’s busiest crossing point in 2015-16 for illegal migration, a large movement of refugees westward, many of whom fled the war in Syria and Iraq and passed through Turkey.
After this wave of migration, Greece set up camps on Lesbos and 4 islands, helped finance the European Union, and more recently also established a network of camps on the mainland.
Lesbos firefighters were also fighting two wildfires in the west of the island.
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