Fire breaks out at Greece's overcrowded Moria refugee camp WORLD
- Greece
- migrants and refugees
- Coronavirus
Covid-positive migrants sought after Greek camp burns down The Greek island of Lesbos has been clamped under a state of emergency, as some 12,000 migrants are at large after a fire burned down their holding camp last night. And at least 35 of them are known to have tested positive for Covid-19.
By John Carr
No-one seems to have been seriously hurt in the fire that reduced the Moria camp, Greece’s biggest, to cinders. According to Greek media reports, the fire broke out after some migrants tried to stop the Greek police from moving the Covid-positive migrants to isolated quarters. There has been no official word yet on the precise cause.
Most of the migrants in the camp, including those infected, are believed to be scattered over the Lesbos countryside. Local people in some villages were reported setting up roadblocks in case the migrants tried to enter, while the police have set up a sanitary cordon around the main town of Mytilene.
The fire at Moria prompted a full-scale emergency cabinet meeting here in Athens this morning, as senior officials flew to Lesbos to assess the situation. But for today at least, there seemed to be little hope of rounding up the escaped migrants.
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09 September 2020, 14:29
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