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GREECE-MIGRANTS-FIRE
Migrants wary of new Lesbos camp despite virus fears
LESBOS ISLAND, Greece, Sept 12, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Aided by a Fars-speaking translator, Greek asylum staffer Michalis patiently explains to a group of Afghan asylum seekers that a new tent camp awaits them on the island of Lesbos.
“You cannot stay on the street. It’s dangerous, and I remind you that coronavirus is everywhere,” says the staffer, who declined to give his last name.
Over 11,000 people — including some 4,000 children — have been sleeping rough since the notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary camp of Moria burned down this week.
Most of them are from Afghanistan, with smaller populations from Syria, DR Congo and Iran.
Lacking tents and even basic bedding, they have sought shelter wherever there is room — on the side of the road, in parking lots and even inside a local cemetery.
“This camp will be different than Moria. We promise you the asylum procedure will be faster. You will be able to leave the island quickly,” Michalis says.
Aided by army bulldozers, work crews have worked round-the-clock to erect a makeshift tent camp for 3,000 people a few kilometres from the ruins of Moria.
Alexandros Ragavas, a spokesman for the migration ministry, says vulnerable asylum seekers will be the first to be housed.
“We will give priority to families. It will be tents of six and the camp will be separated by ethnicities. The process of moving people will start today,” he tells AFP.
Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi on Saturday said asylum seekers would be tested on entry for the novel coronavirus, and that a “special quarantine” area had been created near the camp for those testing positive.
Officials have blamed migrants for the fires, the first breaking out shortly after 35 people tested positive for coronavirus and were facing isolation measures.
Only eight of the 35 positive cases have been found.
An additional headache for authorities is that the fire also torched registration records and asylum claims, which will now have to be redone from scratch.
– Migrants skeptical –
But many of the asylum-seekers are wary of being bottled up again after months of coronavirus lockdown, and fear a re-run of the ethnic gang crime and dismal sanitation standards that plagued Moria.
Others say the location of the new camp on a hilltop overlooking the sea bodes ill for winter.
“It’s near the sea. How we will (manage in) winter, it will be so cold,” asks Omar, an 18-year-old from Burkina Faso.
“We will demonstrate again today. We don’t want to be in a closed camp where there is no security and no liberty,” says 21-year-old Afghan Mahdi Ahmadi.
Hundreds of migrants gathered near the site of the new camp on Saturday, beating plastic bottles and shouting “No camp” at riot police, following a first protest Friday.
Lesbos residents are equally opposed to having a new camp in their midst.
“It would be better not to have any new camp around here. Especially because of the coronavirus, we don’t want them next to our homes,” says a man who gave his name as Kostas, and has his house near the entry of the new camp.
“People are exhausted with this situation, both refugees and locals,” he adds.
Encouraged by local authorities, some residents this week set up roadblocks to prevent construction work on the new camp from going ahead.
Extra riot police have been sent to Lesbos, where there were clashes in February during previous efforts to build a new camp.
BSS/AFP/AU/16:30 hrs