Migrants, tensions in Lesbos: the police use tear gas

• Migrants, Merkel-Macron agreement to welcome 400 children from Lesbos

• Migrants, Greek government sets up temporary camp to welcome refugees from Lesbos

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September 12, 2020 Anger and tension rise in Lesbos, where hundreds of asylum seekers demonstrate to ask for accommodation after the fires that destroyed the Moria camp and after spending the fourth night in the open.

The Greek police used tear gas against the migrants who were throwing stones at the officers during the demonstration.

More than 11,000 people, including thousands of children, were left homeless for four days.

The island's authorities want to transfer the migrants to hundreds of tents which they have begun to urgently set up in a fence near the port.

"Priority will be given to families, with tents for six people. The relocation process begins today", spokesman for the Ministry of Immigration, Alexandros Ragavas, told AFP.

Greek Migration Minister Giorgios Koumoutsakos said today that the Aegean island of Lesbos is facing a public health emergency after this week's fires devastated the migrant camp of Moria, enormously overcrowded.

Speaking this morning on Skai TV, Koumoutsakos said the country faces a "triple challenge" involving "public health, public order and national security." The government exponent then expressed "certainty" that The fires, which first broke out on Tuesday, have been the result of an arson outbreak although, so far, no one has been arrested and no concrete evidence of this has been provided.

Hell broke out the day after authorities announced further lockdown measures at the facility after dozens of camp residents tested positive for the coronavirus.

Germany and France have offered to relocate "400 underage refugees" displaced from the Moria camp to the EU, but "it is only a first step: more must be done" and Berlin "must declare itself ready to welcome more "asylum seekers from the structure on the island of Lesbos destroyed by fire, because" the numbers "relating to the availability of reception so far from EU countries" are not up to the needs ".

German vice-chancellor and finance minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) underlines this in a press conference at the end of the informal Ecofin in Berlin, broadcast by the Commission's audiovisual services.

"It would be good - Scholz remarks - if others could join" the efforts to relocate refugees ". What happened in Moria, continues the vice-chancellor," is a sign of what has gone wrong in EU migration policies in recent years .

I can only hope that this will accelerate an agreement "on the reform of the asylum policy." I would be very happy if the EU could reach an agreement soon, also as regards solidarity with the EU border countries ", he concludes.

Austria will not accept refugees from the Moria camp in Lesbos. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz reiterated this in a video message posted on Facebook. According to Kurz, the migrant crisis of five years ago must not repeat itself. " the inhumane system of 2015 is not compatible with my conscience ", said the leader of the Austrian People's Party Oevp, instead supporting the local aid line" to ensure humane accommodation. "The issue - added Kurz - does not only concern Moria , but also other realities in the world that do not enjoy media attention. "At the European level - he announced - we will strive for an overall approach.

There is no need for a policy of symbols ". According to the chancellor," the terrible images of the station in Budapest "in the summer of 2015" gave way to European politics "which opened the borders, thus setting in motion" even a million people " "The traffickers have earned exorbitant sums and countless people have drowned in the Mediterranean," continued Kurz. "This year alone, Austria has welcomed 3,700 children.

Asylum applications from around 100 children were accepted every week and they found safety in Austria ", said the Austrian Chancellor.