Greece: in nightgowns, penniless and food, distraught migrants from Moria
Audio 01:13
Refugees and asylum seekers reach out to receive tomatoes during a food distribution at the burnt down camp of Moria, Lesvos, September 10, 2020. REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis
Text by: RFI Follow
6 min
In Greece, on the island of Lesbos, two successive fires devastated almost the entire Moria camp, the largest in Europe.
At present, the vast majority of the 12,700 asylum seekers who were lodged there in unsanitary conditions find themselves on the streets and have scattered all along the road which leads to Mytilene, the capital of the island.
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With our special correspondent in Lesbos,
Joël Bronner
“
Moria, it's not right, there you go.
There was the fire.
Fire everywhere
.
It burned everywhere, clothes, everything, everything, everything, everything… Everything we had for clothes, papers, everything was burned.
And now here we are here.
"
“
Here
” for Carl, a 29-year-old Congolese, it corresponds to the road near a Lidl hypermarket, near the entrance to Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos.
A hypermarket whose doors are now closed.
With Olivier his compatriot, who emphasizes that they have "
nothing to
eat," Carl queues for the first food distribution organized by the army in front of the food sign.
Water, eggs, bread and some fruit, originally destined for the Moria camp, charred by the flames.
Disillusioned, Carl watches other asylum seekers pounce on food, in an atmosphere of crush.
“
It's the radio, there are no images.
What's going on here is really inhumane, really.
Here we are, we are left like that, food like that, for 12,700 people to use food and it is not normal like that, there is no organization to do things well.
"
On the same road, a few kilometers away, where just as many, if not more, refugees are gathered, no food distribution has in fact been set up since the fire.
► Read also:
Moria fire in Greece: thousands of migrants find themselves homeless on the island of Lesbos
Ada is lying on the side of the road which leads from Moria to Mytilene, sheltered from the small corner of shade offered by a low wall.
After a year spent in the overcrowded Moria camp, the fire surprised this Cameroonian national in her sleep.
That's why, she explains, she now wears a nightgown in broad daylight.
“
I was in the section where single women are housed.
While I was sleeping, everyone came out and there were three of us in the room.
And then there are the police officers who came: "get out, get out, get out", they spoke in English,
"go, go, big fire, big fire"!
I took nothing, it was only the nightgown I had, straight away I went out quickly and there was a fire coming.
We fled and we spent the night under the stars, today will be the third day… Not eaten… Not even water to drink… I don't know if the European Union is sleeping, if it is not watching no, if she doesn't care about people… no, I don't know.
"
Already deprived of everything, the thousands of migrants from the Moria camp in Lesbos are now homeless, and sleep on the asphalt.
REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis
Like Ada, many refugees no longer have any clothing other than those they wear.
Others have lost their phones or meager savings in the flames.
The day after the fire, Ada was to have an interview relating to her asylum application.
More than yesterday, Ada, on the ground on the road, ignores all of her fate.
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