Displaying items by tag: Moria refugee camp

A fire has destroyed Greece's Moria migrant camp on Lesbos. 13,000 are sleeping rough in fields, car parks and roads. Authorities have sent three ships to temporarily shelter 2,000 and are working to provide emergency accommodation near the destroyed camp. Germany called the blaze a ‘humanitarian disaster.’ Some locals attacked and prevented fleeing migrants from passing through their village. The UNHCR said it was aware of ‘tensions’ between nearby townsfolk and the migrants. Pray for those working to arrange shelter for 13,000 refugees. 70% are Afghani with 30% from 70 different countries. Authorities placed Moria under quarantine last week after a Somali migrant tested positive for the coronavirus. There are now 35 confirmed cases.

Winter makes life in an improvised refugee camp even harder than it already is for asylum seekers - especially for the most vulnerable. Pregnant women, new-born babies, and the elderly, sleeping in tents without heating, are among hundreds exposed to worsening weather. Hours after a 24-year-old man from Cameroon was found dead at Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, an Oxfam report stated that hundreds of vulnerable people, including survivors of torture, ‘are being abandoned’ in substandard conditions. Oxfam said its concern is that there could be more deaths with the recent freezing weather and the poor preparations for winter in the camps. Every year conditions in and around the camps deteriorate further with the onset of winter because they are not equipped for cold temperatures, heavy rain or snowfall. Pray for those living in muddy bogs, burning anything they can find to keep warm to receive suitable accommodation, and medical support. See also