Foreign
GREEK police on Thursday began clearing the remaining migrants from the partially destroyed Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, which was hit by fire last week.
The migrants are being taken to new makeshift accommodation on the island, where 2,000 have already arrived.
Everything has been peaceful up until now,“ German doctor Gerhard Trabert, who is working with aid agencies there, told dpa.
Trabert estimates that several thousand people are still in and around the camp, which police believe was deliberately set on fire.
Six alleged arsonists, all of them young Afghan migrants, have been arrested after 12,000 migrants were initially made homeless.
Around 170 officials are involved in trying to move migrants to the new facility, which has already recorded dozens of positive coronavirus tests, the state broadcaster ERT reported, citing the Greek Migration Ministry.
“We have to make sure we take the people to the new camp. If they are out on the streets then that is a big hygiene problem,” Panagiotis Arkoumaneas, the head of the Greek public health authority, told Skai radio.
Many of the migrants, who have come from Asia to seek a better life in Europe, are wary of moving and want to be taken to the mainland.
Greece, on the European Union’s eastern and southern border, is a major arrival point for migrants.
Several European countries including Germany have pledged to take in migrants from Greece in reaction to the fire in the Moria camp. (dpa/NAN)
– Sept. 17, 2020 @ 11:15 GMT |
Tags: Greek police start to clear remaining migrants from ruined Moria camp
