A situation like the one in Moria must "never happen again," said the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. Some lawmakers called for a "solidarity-based solution" to the crisis, but not everyone agrees.
When Europe's largest refugee camp burned down, asylum-seekers on Lesbos, Greece, were forced to sleep on the streets, without access to food or water. Marianna Karakoulaki documented three days of their makeshift life.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
Heavy burden
Moria, the EU's largest refugee camp, held more than 12,000 people. After it burned down, most refugees moved to the streets just outside Lesbos' other main refugee camp, Kara Tepe, but were not allowed in. Instead, they created temporary shelter for themselves by setting up tents. Police contained them to the stretch of road while the Greek government moved to rapidly create a new temporary camp.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
'We don't need food'
Following days of sleeping rough on the street in front of Kara Tepe, refugees organized a peaceful protest using bottles to try and make the authorities hear their demands. Most refugees are afraid of going back to a camp similar to Moria. "We don't want food, we want freedom," people told DW, over and over again. Human rights organizations had characterized Moria camp as an open-air prison.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
The power of protest
Hundreds of refugees took part in daily protests in the hopes that they would not be put into a new Moria-like camp. The Greek government responded by sending ten police platoons, two water cannons and two armored vehicles to the makeshift tent site in front of Kara Tepe. Some protests were met with tear gas. "Is it worth protesting?" one person expressed to DW.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
'Free us'
"Man & World Organization. We want water, no food, just free us," this Afghan girl's sign reads in English and Dari. The majority of refugees protesting the rough conditions come from war-torn or post-conflict zones, including Afghanistan and the DRC. Despite the trauma endured, children are active in protests, showcasing their determination to fight for their rights and future.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
Nothing is more permanent than temporary
The Greek government claims that the new refugee camp will be temporary. But refugees — some of whom have been in Greece for over a year — fear it will be another place of endless waiting. "Sto Nisi," a local Lesbos newspaper, published a contract showing that the Ministry of Migration Policy has rented the property where the new camp is to be located until 2025, for €2.9 million ($3.4 million).
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
No quick solution
One week after the Moria fire, refugees remained on the blocked road. Greek government officials claimed that people would be transferred rapidly to the new camp; however, by Tuesday night, only 1,000 people had moved there. The government announced that the island of Lesbos, the landing site for large numbers of refugees crossing the Aegean Sea, would be emptied of refugees by next spring.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
Family life in severe hardship
Refugees adapt in harsh conditions. Following days of hunger and thirst, refugees started receiving some basics: two bottles of water and food. But with the September sun scorching Lesbos, it is not enough. Some try to prioritize hygiene since, amidst everything else endured, they are now concerned about COVID-19. So far, at least 31 refugees who have moved into the new camp have tested positive.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
When the sun sets
The night brings more danger and fear to the refugees who live in the makeshift tent site on the road. "Can you imagine how it felt sleeping among so many men as a young woman? Going in the forest or hell [the tent area] for toilet? I couldn't sleep all night as I feared insects will come and sting my daughter and husband," one young Afghan woman told DW.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
'God help us'
Life in Moria was tough and dangerous. Many refugees there had lost all hope. Having already fled their homes, the Moria fire forced them to flee once more to save their lives. After sunset, at the makeshift tent site, dozens of women, children and men prayed on the street in front of a grocery store. They asked God to give them hope and for their voices to be heard. Many could not stop crying.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
Tears for a absent future
Many of the refugees in Greece have suffered unbearable trauma, having left conflict zones and extreme poverty. "We didn't come here to collect money. We didn't come here to have a great time. We only want our children to have a better future and have an education," this Afghan man told DW through nonstop tears.
Image: DW/M. Karakoulaki
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What do EU lawmakers think?
"It's absolutely intolerable," EU lawmaker Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar told DW. "It's unacceptable that there are almost 13,000 people completely homeless, with no sanitation facilities, with no roof, with no access to medicines."
Elena Kountoura, a Greek MEP, called for other EU countries to take a bigger role in supporting refugees saying, "asylum seekers are not something that should just be of concern to Italy and Greece, this is a responsibility that needs to be taken on by the European Union."
"The solution is not another Moria, we need a genuine solidarity-based European solution," she added. That solidarity was not an "adhoc option," Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar told DW, when it comes to "transferring 400 unaccompanied minors from the hell in Lesbos in Moria to the mainland."
Tom Vandendriessche, Belgian Member of the European Parliament for the Flemish right-wing nationalist party Vlaams Belang, called for the EU to rethink its asylum policy.
"I do think Europe can do a lot more and we need to help the Greek government by giving them extra funds to build a new camp, then these immigrants, these refugees, need to be brought to a new camp. But most of all, we must determine another policy. We cannot host everybody in the world who is looking for a better future," Vandendriessche told DW.
"We need to agree inside Europe on a common policy. I believe that this common policy needs to agree on that the asylum system, as we have it right now, is just not applicable anymore," added Vandendriessche.
According to a poll published by public broadcaster ZDF, 43% of Germans believe that the country should take in a large share of the refugees, while a further 46% thought that they should only be taken in on condition that other European countries do the same. Around 1 in ten were completely against taking in any of the displaced people.
At the same time, 62% of those surveyed agreed that taking in these refugees would lead to increasing numbers of migrants making their way to Europe.