More than 1,500 migrants from the Greek islands, including Lesbos, will be welcomed in Germany.

These asylum seekers have been sleeping homeless since the Moria camp fire, which occurred almost a week ago.

The Greek Minister of Civil Protection, Michalis Chryssohoïdis, announced that five migrants had been arrested in the investigation into the fire at this camp, which hosted 12,000 refugees in unsanitary conditions, and that a sixth suspect identified was in leak.

>> To read, the InfoMigrants report: A week after the Moria fire, migrants are still living in the hell of the streets

"I refuse to let the EU lower its eyes to immigration"

Traveling to Lesbos, where he said he was "moved" by this "dramatic" and "complex" situation, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, called on Europe to "mobilize" and "get involved. "to" seriously tackle the challenge "of migration.

"I refuse that the EU lowers its eyes in the face of immigration" because "the borders of Greece are the borders of Europe", he insisted.

After the “brutal event” of the Moria fire, he pleaded for “a fair, strong and effective response” from the European Union, calling for “more partnerships with third countries”.

Until now, the Europeans' response had been very discreet: 10 countries have agreed to take care of 400 unaccompanied minors, including France, which should take in around 100.

But Germany "guaranteed that 1,553 family members" recognized as refugees by the Greek authorities would "leave the islands" of the Aegean Sea, in the words of German vice-chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday.

"Open the doors"

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday evening that her decision to welcome these migrants was a "manageable and justifiable settlement" for Germany.

However, she said she was disappointed by the lack of a concerted European solution.

This "is not a sign of the capacity for action and the values ​​of Europe," she regretted, according to participants at a meeting of her conservative parliamentary group in Berlin.

In Lesbos, since the fire that ravaged the Moria camp, erected five years ago at the height of the migration crisis, thousands of asylum seekers have been sleeping on the sidewalks, in fields or in abandoned buildings, with little food and access to water in a blazing heat.

In a tent, where all eight of her family have lived since the Moria fire, Samira Ahmedi, 21, who arrived from Afghanistan a year ago, struggles to contain her tears.

"Please," she calls out to European countries, "open the doors. We are human, we are not animals."

"Without shower or mattress"

At his side, Simine, 22, does not want to enter the new temporary camp, hastily erected by the authorities after the fire.

“There is no food, no water,” she explains, “nobody wants to go to the new camp”.

The conditions there are deplorable "without shower or mattress", according to testimonies collected by AFP.

"The entry of asylum seekers into the new camp is non-negotiable," the Minister of Civil Protection nevertheless told the media in Lesbos.

Barely 800 migrants have so far agreed to settle there, according to figures from the ministry.

Most migrants refuse to do so for fear of not being able to leave the island once inside.

For Vany Bikembo, a 25-year-old mechanic who arrived a year ago from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the temporary camp, "over there, it's a second hell" after that of Moria.

In the port of Mytilene, the capital of the island, some 200 islanders demonstrated in the early evening to proclaim their refusal to see a new migrant camp open not far from the ruins of Moria.

Normalization of their situation

"The islands do not want a concentration camp, neither open nor closed," read a banner waved by the demonstrators, mostly from the Communist Party.

The prefect of North Aegean, Kostas Mountzouris, one of the fiercest opponents of the government's plan to erect a closed camp on Lesbos, called on entrepreneurs and professionals to come together to demand a "normalization" of the situation and "the removal of migrants from the island".

For several months, the Greek conservative government has been planning the establishment of a closed center in Lesbos to decongest the megastructure of Moria.

Now that it is destroyed, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has confirmed the upcoming reconstruction of a camp and wished for more active involvement from the European Union.

The European Commission has brought forward to 23 September the presentation of its highly anticipated project to reform migration policy in the EU.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR