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Just after 10 p. m. On the night of Tuesday, September 8, a demonstration in the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos took a terrible turn when a handful of small fires set by frustrated protesters temporarily spread through the densely packed facility, engulfing it. completely.
The next morning, when the flames ceased, most of the camp was destroyed and nearly 12,000 more people were left homeless.
The cause?
It began with the transfer of an ATM on which the camp’s total money depended.
Additional fires occurred on Wednesday night for the rest of the day. The Greek government was later rushed into the day to set up accommodation for refugees. Meanwhile, fights and protests broke out when refugees demanded to be transferred out of Lesbos and frustrated citizens tried to save him. the structure of new housing.
The refugees did not aim to set fire to the camp where they lived, said Mohammed Akbar, a 42-year-old Afghan and father of three, who spoke to Insider WhatsApp.
But then came the coronavirus, which resulted in about 40. The isolation imposed by the camp isolating its citizens from the ATM that served them all: the banking service they had.
Moria was designed in 2015 to briefly welcome another 3,000 people, while waves of refugees fled the wars in Syria and northern Iraq. But “in short” they have become permanent and on Wednesday, up to 12,000 more people lived there. migration to only 86,000 other people.
Akbar described a scene in which the already overcrowded camp becomes hellish after 35 citizens tested positive for COVID, resulting in a general closure of the facility. For many, “installations” are just plastic tents and canvases.
Restrictions were imposed on those who can queue for hours to obtain food rations from a circle of relatives, and this led to the camp’s precarious food scene to chaos. Restrictions included the closure of the ATM. Even when the device works, long lines form in front of it, as the May images show:
The ATM is the only way for the citizens of Moria to withdraw or raise money, as the camp is within walking distance of the nearest town. These undeniable responsibilities, such as getting food, soap or diapers, have suddenly become very complicated and the camp has become dependent on a faulty official documentation system, resources told Insider.
People panicked because they couldn’t get cash to buy the things they needed.
“The ATM was closed, so there was no cash to buy food, there was no store open,” Akbar said. “And the food they give you did not come. Families were hungry and young children needed milk,” he said.
The protests, which are commonplace as thousands of people have been stranded in the island’s camp for years, aimed to pressure the government to reopen the bank, facilitate food distribution and displace some families from the island. to decrease overcrowding.
Some young people, others, light small fires.
“The chimney came here from young boys and not adults, some of them had no parents or relatives to control them, they were causing disorder with the police,” Akbar said, in a show through several other witnesses.
Moria is among the olive trees on a wind-scoured hill, and the wind temporarily took the flames into spaces filled with plastic tents, and spread to the propane fuel canisters that families used to prepare prepared meals.
Greek officials have pledged to evict those who were evicted from the fires and said they had opened an investigation.
On Wednesday, authorities submitted plans to move many unaccompanied miners to services on the continent, but so far they have refused to allow most now homeless refugees to leave the island.
In the race to space, more than 10,000 people were left homeless, in many cases sleeping in the camps and on the side of the roads, Greece announced that a new facility would be built and that refugees would be spaced on ferries and sent warships. to the scene.
The islanders have been complaining about the agreement for months. More than five years ago they were told it would be transient. This week, they engaged in a series of blockades and clashes with police sent from Athens to avoid a new “transitority” solution.
“They left us the island and we left the island, ” said Akbar.
To donate to a migrant aid fund in Greece, the Doctors Without Borders website.