A new fire broke out on Wednesday night at Greece’s largest refugee camp just a day after blazes forced thousands of refugees to flee the facility. The fires erupted in parts of the camp that had not caught fire on Tuesday night. Greek authorities have launched an investigation to determine who started the blazes after local media reports suggested migrants had done so to protest lockdown measures enacted to contain a coronavirus outbreak at the camp. Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi backed those allegations, saying that although the initial cause of the blazes remain unknown, “what is certain is that the fire was started because of the quarantine by asylum seekers in the facility.” But critics have also taken aim at Greek authorities as well as the EU for failing to find a sustainable solution for dealing with Greece’s overcrowded migration facilities. Prior to the fires, the Moria refugee camp hosted more than 12,000 people, four times more than its maximum intended capacity. Erik Marquardt, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) with Germany’s Greens, told DW that the fire represented a “political disaster” for Europe for failing to better manage the 2015 migration crisis.
Fresh fires at Greece’s largest refugee camp Moria | DW News
