Greek officials have threatened to make asylum conditional to resettlement in a new tent facility on the island of Lesbos. The German government has signaled its intention to take in more migrants in a "second step."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/L. Gouliamaki
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Greek authorities on Monday said that they have resettled 600 out of more than 12,000 migrants into a new tent facility on the isle of Lesbos, just days after a blaze destroyed the main camp Moria.
"We expect that in the next three to four days all [the migrants on Lesbos] will be housed," said Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas. However, he noted that some of the migrants were refusing to relocate to the new facility.
Earlier on Monday, Green Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis told local radio that migrants' asylum applications would be contingent on their agreeing to relocation at the new facility.
"From new Monday, asylum procedures will only be processed for those who are in the camp," Mitarakis said.
Dozens of women and children staged a protest in front of the new facility, calling for help and to be relocated off the island.
"People don't want to go back to the camp, maybe they want to go to other countries, and they want to complain to the Greek government and the other countries," said an Afghan migrant who lived in Moria for more than a year.
Authorities are also struggling with a nascent novel coronavirus outbreak. Local media initially blamed the fire on migrants protesting lockdown measures imposed at the camp.
Germany steps in
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government in Berlin is in talks with relevant parties to determine a "second step" towards taking in more migrants displaced by the fire.
The German government has already agreed to accept 150 minors in accord with other EU countries. Observers say a new deal could be announced as early as Wednesday, when Merkel will hold a cabinet meeting.
"Talks are now ongoing in the federal government about how else Germany can help, what other substantial contribution our country can make," said Seibert.
However, Seibert noted that Germany's decision to resettle migrants from the Moria camp would not open the door to more in the future. He described the situation in Lesbos as a "humanitarian emergency, a one-off emergency situation."
In 2015, Merkel spearheaded efforts to host refugees in Europe, opening Germany's borders to hundreds of thousands displaced by war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Hell on earth — Greece's Moria refugee camp and its tortured history
The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has burned to the ground. The situation is serious but it was already grave before fire swept through Europe's largest — and most overcrowded — refugee camp.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/P. Balaskas
The night it all burned down
Fire broke out in a number of spots around the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos late on the night of Tuesday, September 8. That has led authorities to suspect arson. Some in the camp have suggested locals set the fires but there are other reports that point to migrants themselves.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Lagoutaris
Into the darkness
All of the inhabitants of the hopelessly overcrowded camp managed to get to safety. According to media reports, many migrants fled into the hills and forests nearby. Some are said to have begun walking to Mytilene, the island's capital. There have been no reports of death or injury.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/P. Balaskas
Life threatening
Moria was originally designed to hold up to 2,800 people. At the time the fires broke out it held some 12,600. Living conditions in the camp were catastrophic before the fire. Looking at this photo taken in its aftermath, it is glaringly apparent that no one will be able to live there again any time soon — at least not under humane conditions.
Image: Reuters/A. Konstantinidis
Pixelated camp
Anyone hoping to see satellite images on Google Maps of the camp, located on the eastern shore of Lesbos, just 15 kilometers from the Turkish coast, is out of luck. The site has been pixilated. "Google itself does not pixelate satellite images," the company told DW, referring to third-party entities that supply the satellite imagery. It is unknown why the camp has been digitally altered.
Image: 2020 CNES/Airbus, European Space Imaging, Maxar Technologies
A clear image
This aerial view of the same area shows that the camp has been greatly expanded. In the earlier Google Maps image, the house with the red roof stands alone but in the more recent photo it seems to have been swallowed up by the camp.
Image: DW/D. Tosidis
Looking into the past
The camp is not pixelated on Google Street View. Whereas the pixilated satellite images on Google Maps are from 2020, those on Street View are from December 2011 — before there was even a camp. At the time, the only thing there was an old military barracks. It was not until October 2015 that Greece began registering asylum-seekers at the site before taking them to the mainland.
Image: 2020 Google
From stopover to longterm stays
When this photo was taken in October 2015, refugees only stayed at the camp for a short time. That changed drastically in March 2016, when the EU signed its so-called refugee deal with Turkey. Since then, refugees have had to endure long stays before being sent to other EU countries or being deported.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
Waiting and waiting and waiting
As a result of the EU-Turkey deal, refugees are no longer allowed to travel to the Greek mainland because Turkey would then no longer be obliged to take them. But as EU states disagree over who should take how many refugees, people remain in the camp for longer and longer periods of time. The overcrowded camp is populated by many people from a wide range of nations — no wonder there are tensions.
Image: DW/D. Cupolo
When tensions boil over
Those tensions first erupted in September 2016, in the form of violent conflicts during which fires were set and much of the camp was destroyed. At the time, there were only 3,000 migrants in the camp. A few months later, several hundred migrants set fire to EU asylum agency containers in the camp in protest to the slow pace of asylum application processing.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Schwarz
Fire and death
There was another major fire at Moria in September 2019. What started as a blaze in an adjacent olive orchard quickly spread to the camp itself. Less than half an hour later, another fire broke out in the camp, killing a mother and her infant child. At the time, Moria housed some 12,000 people.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Too dangerous to visit
In August, North Rhine-Westphalia State Premiere Armin Laschet visited the camp. His state is the most populous in Germany and the politician expressed a desire to see the so-called wild section of the camp located outside its enclosed boundaries. However, that part of the visit was quickly cancelled for safety reasons as the overall mood was again tense, with many migrants chanting "Free Moria."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Hülsmeier
Now what?
A overcrowded camp with appalling sanitation and medical conditions as well as ethnic tensions — and then the first coronavirus infections — life at the Moria refugee camp was dire before this week's blaze. But what will happen now? Is this the end of Moria, or perhaps the moment to create new, more humane living conditions? It is devastating that no one can answer this question.
