Displaying items by tag: migrant camps

According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are approximately 19,600 migrants and refugees on the Aegean islands as of 8 November. A series of large blazes destroyed Greece's largest migrant camp, Moria on the island of Lesbos, back in September. The Greek authorities said that the fires were deliberately started by the camp's residents. Officials on Samos reported a similar fire at a migrant camp on 2 November, the second blaze to hit such a facility over the last ten days. The cause of this fire has not yet been determined, and the number of migrant tents destroyed by the blaze is not yet known.

Pray for the Greek government trying to find new solutions to unhealthy sanitary conditions for thousands of migrants living in camps. In January it was urged to order an immediate evacuation of 100+ sick children from Moria refugee camp on Lesbos. Médecins Sans Frontières accused Athens of ‘deliberately depriving’ at least 140 minors of adequate medical care for what they described as chronic, complex and life-threatening diseases, and said it was urgent they were moved from notorious Moria to the mainland or to other EU member states. The new conservative government announced that the current overcrowded camps will close this year’, planning to replace them with smaller facilities which should be operational by mid-2020. However, administrative officials and residents of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros, and Kos are gathering in front of the interior ministry to protest against these plans.