Moria migrant camp fire: UN wants departures to accelerate

Refugees observe the new temporary camp on the island of Lesbos after the fire that destroyed the Moria camp.

AP Photo / Petros Giannakouris

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The UN has urged Greece to speed up asylum procedures in Lesvos, where 12,000 migrants are still wandering since the apparently arson attack at Moria camp.

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The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has set up an emergency camp on Lesvos.

In the white tents intended to accommodate 8,000 people, only 1,200 migrants have so far settled.

The others hesitate.

They consider this new camp as a prison from which they will not be able to leave.

Yet it is here that the procedures to finally leave the island will continue, a UNHCR official said.

Half should be able to leave by Christmas

After

the UN puts the Athens government under pressure to speed up departures.

The emergency camp must, as its name suggests, remain an emergency solution and not turn into a permanent camp.

But the Greek Minister of Civil Protection is more cautious.

According to him, half of the exiles will be able to leave Lesbos by Christmas, the others by Easter.

Of the six young Afghans suspected of being involved

in the fires that ravaged the Moria camp, four were arrested on the island and indicted on Wednesday September 16 for "arson" and "criminal gang formation".

The four suspects have claimed their innocence.

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• Greece

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