Children forced to sleep on streets after fire destroys refugee camp – Metro.co.uk

Homeless children, women and men can be seen sleeping on the streets of Lesbos. — Migrants from Lesbos migrant camp sleep on the road after a devastating fire left them homeless (Picture: Getty Images)

Around 12,000 people, including women and children, have been left sleeping on the streets after a devastating fire ripped through Greece’s largest refugee camp.

Designed to house only around 3,000 people, the overcrowded Moria camp on the island of Lesbos was placed under quarantine last week after a migrant tested positive for coronavirus.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis blamed the fires on a ‘violent reaction’ to testing in the overcrowded camp.

‘I do appreciate the difficult circumstances. However, there can be no excuse for violent reactions to health checks. Even more so, for such unrest,’ he said.

‘The situation in Moria cannot go on because it is also a matter of public health, humanism, and national security.’

The Greek authorities have now declared a state of emergency.

A distressed boy stands in front of a fire which destroyed Moria camp in Lesbos. — An Afghan boy looks on as fires which started Tuesday night continue to rage into Thursday morning inside of Moria camp on September 10 (Picture: Getty Images)

A boy runs through what remains of Moria camp. — According to UNHCR, current numbers say the asylum-seekers displaced from the encampment are around 12,000 (Picture: Getty Images)

A group of asylum-seeking women can be seen standing. — Thousands of displaced asylum-seekers were left homeless (Picture: Getty Images)

A raging fire can be seen burning its way through a shelter. — A fire destroys a shelter in Moria camp (Picture: Getty Images)

Twenty firefighters fought to control the monstrous blaze which broke out in three different locations on Tuesday.

With no tents or shelter, many who fled the devastation attempted to carry their few belongings to the island’s main town of Mytilene, where police had blocked roads.

Reports emerged of locals reportedly attacking those left homeless as they attempted to travel through a nearby village.

Riot police were also deployed on Wednesday after protests broke out.

Speaking to local radio, Stratos Kytelis, the mayor of the island’s main town, Mylinene said the migrants were being guarded by police on a highway.

He said: ‘It is a very difficult situation because some of those who are outside will include people who are positive [for coronavirus].’

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President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Luyen, offered to assist with the response.

She tweeted the priority was to ensure the ‘safety of those left without shelter’, and that she had asked vice president of the European Commission, Margaritas Schinas, to travel to Greece.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis will meet with the the EU vice commissioner on Friday.

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Since the island of Lesbos was thrust into the centre of the refugee crisis in 2015, Greece has faced mounting criticism for failing to tackle the squalid conditions inside its refugee camps.

United Nations Refugee Agency spokesperson Andrej Mahecic, urged Greece in February to ‘intensify efforts to address alarming overcrowding and precarious conditions for asylum seekers and migrants’.

Human Rights Watch warned in April that unless the Greek authorities tackled the ‘dire conditions’ and overcrowding within the island camps, they would not be prepared to tackle a coronavirus outbreak.

Health authorities confirmed a total of 35 Covid-19 positive cases have now been linked to the camp.

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