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The resolution comes a week after the fires destroyed the Moria camp, where another 12,000 people lived, but human rights teams say the new camp is just a transitional solution.
By Niki Kitsantonis and Megan Specia
When the fires devastated Moria’s migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week, another 12,000 people were displaced and slept on the edges of roads, car parks or cemeteries.
A transit tent camp was set up for them, and the first to arrive at the facility over the weekend, and on Thursday, police began bringing more people to the camp in an effort to speed up the process.
The new facility will provide quick shelter for thousands of desperately in need, but rights teams say the move will be a transitional solution, as Europe proposes a more comprehensive solution for the thousands of migrants and refugees arriving on the continent.
When the police began the operation to move more people to the facility, they encountered some resistance. Videos shared online and broadcast on Greek television showed the status of the armed officers, while others dressed in anti-coronavirus masks and protective fittings tried to convince migrants to settle in. Many migrants carried their few belongings in plastic bags or strollers with a lot of clothes.
Stelios Petsas, a government spokesman, said at a press conference that 1,150 migrants had been transferred to the police operation. As of Thursday night, about 5,000 more people were in the new camp, which can house all those displaced by the fire, according to Greece’s Ministry of Migration In this group, another 135 people are remote at the site after giving positive for coronavirus.
Greek officials insisted that the operation to move others to the transitional field was carried out with the greatest care and in the most productive interests of those displaced by the fire.
Michalis Chrysochoidis, Minister of Citizen Protection, said migrants and refugees were displaced “from neglect to care, from dangers to public fitness and coronavirus to coverage and control, from confusion to order. “
But the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders expressed fear of the disruption of medical care at the move, saying that Greek police had denied their staff access to migrants for their transfer.
“Many other people want medical attention and can’t perform the technique?”Why are they bothering us? The organization wrote on Twitter on Thursday. Around noon, the organization said it had effectively reopened its clinic.
Before last week’s fires, The largest Moria refugee camp in Europe, long plagued by sordid situations and overcrowded tents, has since 2015 been filled with refugees and migrants who risked their lives to cross the Aegean Sea into Greece. the organization is from Afghanistan and was waiting on the island for its asylum programs to be processed.
The camp was closed after an outbreak of coronavirus, prompting protests among citizens and led some to deliberately set fire to the camp. Six citizens of Moria, all Afghan citizens, have been charged with arson in connection with chimneys.
transcript
Mr. Kalispera. Mr. Kalispera.
There are hundreds, if any, thousands of asylum seekers sleeping on the streets. They install tents with bamboo and other dried leaves. There’s a lot of young people here. I can see a tiny baby, I don’t think he’s older than three months, crying.
Some other people here have small backpacks with everything they can save; other people look at their asylum documents, which are the most valuable thing they have.
And now I think I’m entering the stretch of this street that’s occupied by the Afghans. I see a mother who helps her little wife pee and pour water on her.
And it’s a dark Array.
From the New York Times, I’m Megan Twohey. Today: Thousands of refugees are on the streets of Greece after a chimney burned down their camp. My colleague, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, explains how they ended up there in the first place. Thursday, September 17th.
Good morning, about Moria.
La Moria is a position in Greece, a vast expanding domain in the hills of Lesbos, which is in fact a picturesque island in the northeast of the Aegean Sea, where over the years, among olive groves, such slums of huts, tents Where thousands and thousands of asylum seekers, from countries in conflict or extreme poverty , or others facing other types of persecution in their home countries, in the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere, travel, cross Turkey, board ships and end up on the island.
And how precisely did this end up so many other people in the same place?
So, to answer that question, we have to go back to the summer of 2015 and take a look at what happened then, at the height of the so-called European refugee crisis.
It was a time when the Syrian confrontation was on the rise.
Hundreds of thousands more are fleeing violence and terror in places like Syria and Iraq.
Some come from other parts of the world and are looking for greater economic opportunities in Europe.
People were leaving Syria and other parts of the Middle East and transiting Turkey to the Greek islands.
And in Greece, other desperate people are endangering their lives in inflatable boats.
These people, those families, have just risked their lives, everything they own, everyone they love, to cross this strait here to get to Greece.
More than 50 refugee corps have recovered from the sea after failed attempts to succeed in Europe in more than 3 days. Once again, the Greek island of Lesbos has experienced maximum misery.
Up to 3,4,000 more people arrived every day on these small islands.
Droite. Je reminds me. There’s this image of the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean.
This very important image. This is a turning point in the progression of the first phase of the refugee crisis, because it has caused this ethical tension in northern Europe’s richest countries, especially Germany, to open their doors to these people, and that is precisely what happened.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said her country will restrict the number of refugees it welcomes and calls on other EU members to do the same.
The Germans gathered at the station to applaud and applaud as refugees passed through an outdoor transient rehabilitation center.
By 2016, about a million Syrian shelters had left the Greek islands, transited Europe and discovered a safe haven and a new life in Germany.
And how does Moria support those efforts?
At the beginning of the crisis, the idea of passing the government had to do anything that happens when a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude erupts, they think we will create fundamental amenities on this island, which is the first port of departure for those thousands and thousands of other people. And what we’re going to do is check to offer them fundamental things like shelter and food. And we’ll sign your asylum applications. And I hope the plan was at that time, these other people will temporarily move through an asylum formula to new homes across Europe.
And what is the attitude of the Greeks?
Then, one of the comforting things was to see the Greeks mobilize and the other people of Lesbos open their arms and hearts to the refugees who were overwhelming their island. Remember that Greece had just been through one of the worst currency crises in fashion history. People were poor. They themselves were devastated and exhausted, but still, they presented as much as they could. And then, in early 2016, something happens that makes things worse.
What is it? What’s going on?
Well, the European Union sees tens of thousands of asylum seekers in Greece, while others continue to arrive in Lesbos.
Well, as refugees move north across the European Union, they are in terrible situations and resistance.
Germany has just registered its millionth refugee. [CROWD SONG] And those other people need to send them home.
Germany, which had opened its doors, now turns out to be the ultimate.
And Germany, like other countries, does not need to welcome more people, so its borders begin. And collectively, they are looking for a way to reduce the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and what they are doing is reaching an agreement with a country through which these other people, which is Turkey, arrive.
It is an agreement that will end the lives of thousands of stranded refugees and migrants, a game change in a crisis that has shaken the foundations of the European Union.
The agreement reached in April 2016. And –
According to the plan, from Sunday to midnight, all migrants arriving in Greece will be sent back to Turkey if their asylum application is rejected.
In return, Turkey receives political and monetary rewards.
Basically, Europe is giving a few billion dollars to Turkey to help fund services and centres for the more than 3 million refugees it houses, so that they stay there rather than come to Greece and settle in Europe. And Turkey is beginning to slow the flow of refugees. migrants to Greece, but does not prevent them altogether. People go to Greece and end up in Moria, so they get stuck. And until early 2020, it turns out that everything is going wrong.
President Erdogan said EU aid will take time to arrive, but Angela Merkel says more than 3 billion euros have been paid and he expects Erdogan to keep the deal.
Tensions between Greece and Turkey and the European Union and Turkey are beginning to rise. And Turkey, at the end of February 2020, says we’ve had enough. We open our borders. If you are a refugee, if you are a migrant, please to Europe. Our doors are wide open.
Sensational.
And not only that, but it’s also helping others get to the border with Greece, transporting thousands of people from Istanbul and other parts of the country to Greece, and the other people in Lesbos are watching this unfold, and they believe Turkey will start releasing entire boats from more asylum seekers who will come here. And our island is already overflowing. By the time I visited Lesbos in March this year, the camp had more than 20,000 more people.
And how are things for migrants in the countryside?I mean, it seems like a mixture of surely chaotic and deceptive forces that these migrants have to face on the island.
Of course, they are incredibly frustrated and live in those miserable conditions, but they don’t realize the stage is about to get worse, because Covid attacks. The first case of Covid-19 is detected in Moria and, in response, the Greek government has blocked the total camp and generates a lot of anger and a lot of concern in an already very tense environment. And then all this, gets to a critical point. A small migrant organization set fire to the camp and everything caught fire.
We’ll be back.
[SIRENS BLARING]
[AGITATION]
What’s in Lesbos tonight?
It’s very, very, very, very, very difficult. They see the smoke. He’s very bad.
A large chimney has almost destroyed Greece’s largest refugee camp on the island of Lesbos.
[BURNING FLAMES]
Matina, what about that fire?
They were scenes of total chaos.
The chimney’s starting to come out this way. Look, even on the floor. There’s a lot of chimney, ah, come back!
[PEOPLE ARE SCREAMING]
Go back! Go back!
Of course, the flames envelop this set of really combustible fabrics, you know, you have a canvas, cans of fuel in almost every single tent used for cooking and heating, and those thousands of people are apprehended as much as they can and are fleeing. camp.
And it continued for two nights as the first chimney of the first night burned most of the camp, then more chimneys by the time the night ended.
My space is over. The fireplace of the space is . . . It’s over. [BURNING FLAMES]
And what is this fire?
Based on testimonies, whether from Greek officials but also from other asylum seekers and humanitarian workers, what happened that a small organization of angry and angry asylum seekers were asked to be quarantined because a circle of family members had tested positive for Covid?Began. And according to those witnesses, that’s how the chimney started.
And why did this migrant organization set fire to its own camp?
People were incredibly upset. Not only because of the camp’s general poor situation, but because they felt covid was being used to further damage them, the government had tried to prepare plans for Covid’s reaction to the camp, but in the end, he did not show up. be a lot.
Then, when the epidemic spread in the camp, and 35 others tested positive for Covid, and many others were told they had to quarantine them, not in remote clinics, but in some containers, other people were very angry. , after the chimney decimated Moria, I went to Lesbos to see what was going on.
So we’ve reached one of the places where asylum seekers displaced by this chimney have gathered.
Riot police keep you from going into town more. There are other people who cough. There are other people who have obviously slept here the last 3 nights and are waiting to see where they will pass next.
And there were only thousands and thousands of people on the street. Without delay to see a mom with a tiny baby on the street, they had left some blankets that they used as mattresses. And that’s where they had spent the night before, and that’s where they were going to spend the next night.
And others retreat to leave blank their little street where they sleep with makeshift brooms.
Yes.
For example, a scooter vehicle passed and shouted “dirty dogs” at asylum seekers.
How are you doing
All right, thank you.
Are you okay? What’s your name?
My is [INAUDIBLE].
What’s the last name
[INAUDIBLE].
And I stopped in front of a family. He is a father, in fact, with his little wife and . . .
A baby, thirteen months.
Uh, uh. She’s a very small woman who works very well.
Ok thanks.
Well done. Oh beautiful.
Ok thanks.
I love your shoes. Very good shoes.
And he said, when the chimney went on, I grabbed her and took my wife and ran.
See. And you ran?
Run fast, baby, my wife, run outside, away from the area.
And what do you think he’s going to do now?
And in 10 minutes, our tent caught fire. The fireplace everywhere.
We’re just freedom.
Where are you going
I don’t need a new camp. I don’t need Moria anymore.
You don’t have to –
I just freedom.
And at that time, this family, along with some of their relatives and others they knew, had been sleeping on this road for 4 nights, but he tells me that he has been in Moria for a year and prefers to stay on the street. .
Good luck.
Ok thanks.
Thanks to me
I’m pleased to meet you
What’s the matter with you.
good bye.
take care of yourself.
What does it mean when it says sleep on the street? Why would I need that?
The Greek government had feverishly erected a tent so that those other people would not have to sleep on the streets, but other people were so suspicious, so angry, so traumatized by life in Moria and through the chimney that they simply did. I don’t need to move on to the new camp. This guy told me, I’m not going to go to this new camp. And that’s something I’ve heard over and over again.
Turkey?
Yes.
And your English is bad, isn’t it?
Very English.
What is your ?
Mi is Iram (ph).
Iram?
Iram.
Yes.
Me, this 13-year-old woman . . .
Ayyubi? (ph)
Yes.
– who dressed his little brother. And then he was very positive and very enthusiastic.
He’s cute. You look a way.
It’s not pretty.
Very nice. So how have you been on the island?
Les Lesbos?
Yes.
Lesbos is months.
Everything is fine. Nine months, and you were with your family circle when the chimney exploded?
Yes. When the chimney lights up, we come here.
I heard they were making new tents for you. You want to go?
I don’Non. La the store is out of date. I need to move on to [INAUDIBLE] and Germany and France.
But until I get there, shouldn’t I have a sleeping position where it’s covered and safe?
No problem.
And she said, listen. I don’t need to go to this new camp. I don’t need to move on to this position that the Greek passing government is building.
I don’t like tents. We don’t do that, we don’t go, we’re not going into tents.
You don’t –
The tent is the problem.
And Moria, didn’t you like living there?
No, no, no, I don’t like it. I don’t like living here, because that’s where the challenge is, you know?It’s not good. Here’s a challenge.
I understand. I am sorry. Thanks a lot. Good luck.
So, those refugees desperately want to go back to a camp, and how do you solve that and who fixes it?
It is unresolved, Megan, unresolved, the only positive news is that 400 unaccompanied refugee minors, young people who arrived alone in Greece and who lived alone in Moria without parents or other families, have been taken to other countries of the European Union where they will start a life. And Germany mobilized and announced that it would relocate another 1,500 people. This leaves about 10,000 people most in need of resettlement.
But what is also clear, as a message from the Greek authorities, is that they are also in no hurry to get Lesbos out, which is what the population and the migrants themselves are demanding. The explanation is that they don’t need to, send the message that if a refugee camp is burned, it will be moved to Germany or the country.
So obviously there’s a detail of control, and some say punishment, at this rate at which other people are reset.
And Matina, you’ve covered the refugee crisis and Moria since 2015, I mean, given what it’s about now, what do you think will happen next?Well, a component of mine thinks that if, in 2015 and 2016, Europe were able to cope with the arrival of more than a million refugees, then it can actually treat 10,000 people. It’s not the same kind of crisis. But my cynical appearance wonders if this new tent camp in Lesbos will be just another purgatory.
There’s a Greek proverb that goes a little bit like this: it says there’s nothing more permanent than temporary, and I think about it when I think of Moria.
Can you take a selfie here?
Oh, yes. How are you? Are you a little English?
Yes.
Oh, that’s good. What’s your name?
Mahbube (ph).
Mr. Mahbube. What’s your name?
Afzali (ph).
Mr. Afzali. How are you? You’re too young.
15.
15. What about Afghanistan?
Yes. What about you?
I’m actually from Greece.
Greece.
Yes.
I interviewed this very dynamic and energetic 15 year old girl.
How many months have you been on the island?
10 months.
10 months?
Yes.
Everything is fine.
She had been in Lesbos for 10 months. He came here from Afghanistan.
And we come here because we have a future. And we’re waiting because Moria is rebuilding.
Won’t you go back to Moria?
No, it’s not necessary.
What about the new tents they make?
No, it’s not necessary.
He said he later sought to move to Germany to have a future, to build a life.
I need to move to Germany, in French, as a country where I can make a future. I need to get in. And I don’t think Greece likes me very much.
But what struck me was that even someone so young, who obviously had so much hope for the future, at the time, began to lose that hope.
And come here, but now I wish I hadn’t come.
Didn’t you come to Greece?
Yes.
Would you like to be in Afghanistan?
Yes.
She felt that after living in Moria for 10 months without going to school, after that fire, after everything that had happened to her, she wasn’t sure it was worth leaving Afghanistan. Good luck. Thanks for talking to me.
Ok thanks.
I think I feel two things on the stage that I witnessed: the first is that there is so much human and prospective power among those other people that no country will settle for; and are trapped in some of the worst conditions; and the other idea Was that precisely because no country will settle for them, Moria, which was destined to be this place of transition, will never really be a place of transition. There will be those who put the right places where hope ends rather than begin.
Well, thank you very much, Matina.
Thanks for having me.
We’ll be back.
Here’s what you want to know most today.
Today, and even after receiving a vaccine, C. D. C. encourages all Americans to adopt the tough equipment we have lately, to wear a mask, especially when they are in public.
At a Senate hearing Wednesday, C. D. C. Director Robert Redfield told lawmakers that dressing in a mask is the way to slow down and even potentially prevent the spread of coronavirus.
I can even say that this mask is safer to protect against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine. Because immunogenicity can be 70 percent. And if I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine probably won’t protect me. This mask will be.
Redfield also stated that a vaccine could be available for limited use until the end of the year and for wider distribution until mid-2021, contradicting what President Trump said the day before at an ABC city corridor event, when he said the vaccine may be in place in 3 to 4 weeks.
Human rights teams and the countries on the first line of arrivals, adding Greece, have long called for a comprehensive European technique for the crisis, and the fires of last week reinforced that call. Germany this week agreed to host more than 1,500 other people displaced by the fires. .
Photos of lesbos’ new facility show dozens of white tents adorned with the United Nations Refugee Agency logo on a hill near where the extensive Moria camp once was.
Philippe Leclerc, the agency’s representative in Greece, said on a stopover in Lesbos on Wednesday that the organization had worked with the local government to erect transit tents.
The firm also “advocates long-term solutions, with continuous and shared European responsibilities,” Leclerc said, adding that reception centres overcrowded in Lesbos and other Greek islands “should be decongested and their situation improved. “
In an interview on the sidelines of a convention in Athens on Wednesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the migration crisis in Europe is too severe for Greece to handle on its own.
“The tragic chimney in Moria put this in the foreground,” he said. “I think it’s transparent to everyone that we can’t fail twice in Europe. “
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