A "state of emergency" is declared in Lesbos, after the two fires which devastated the Moria camp.

"At least 3,500 migrants are homeless (...) and we are taking emergency measures for these people: the most vulnerable, around 1,000, will be accommodated on a ferry [...] at the port of Mytilene", capital of the Greek island, announced the Greek Minister of Migration, Notis Mitarachi, Wednesday, September 9.

In total, two Greek navy vessels were dispatched to the island on Thursday.

The camp, completely destroyed, housed some 12,700 asylum seekers, four times its capacity, including 4,000 children.

The European Commission has already announced that it is taking charge of the immediate transfer to mainland Greece of 400 children and adolescents.

Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has called on EU countries to welcome migrants from the camp.

Several thousand people spontaneously demonstrated on Wednesday in several cities in this country to demand the authorities to take care of migrants.

Paris will take its part "in solidarity"

For Austria, "if we empty the Moria camp, it will immediately fill up again," argued its Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg.

Vienna will, however, offer one million euros in aid, for example to buy "tents and blankets" in Greece, he added.

France said it was ready to "take its part in solidarity".

"No victim, neither injured, nor missing has been reported," said the Greek Minister of Migration, who praised "the rapid intervention" of firefighters and police ".

On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, thousands of men, women and children panicked from the tents and containers, some taking refuge in the surrounding olive groves.

On Wednesday afternoon, the majority of them found themselves sitting by the side of the road from the camp to the port of Mytilene, forming long queues of three kilometers.

On Wednesday evening, a new fire broke out in a part of the camp which had been relatively untouched, causing the same scenes of chaos.

This "fire is more limited than that of Tuesday evening," said a firefighter official.

Quarantine protests

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who expressed "his sadness", attributed the origin of the disaster to "violent reactions against health checks" carried out since last week after the detection of 35 cases of Covid-19 in the camp.

The first case of coronavirus was detected in Moria last week and the camp was immediately placed in solitary confinement for two weeks.

NGOs are worried about the situation.

"Many people are scattered in places on the island" where NGOs cannot access, explains Giovanna Scaccabarozzi, an employee of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Lesbos, who says she feels "distress and despair".

In recent years, the Moria camp has been criticized for its lack of hygiene and overcrowding by NGOs, which regularly call on the Greek authorities to transfer the most vulnerable asylum seekers to the mainland.

With AFP

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