Last night, the camp of Moria was set on fire and a large part of it was completely destroyed. The 12,000 refugees sheltered in the structure spent a wild night of terror. They testified, saying that “they tried to escape in nearby fields around the camp and initially there was fear that people may have died.”
It is questionable how all this disaster that happened yesterday, had not happened earlier. For so many years, we have published images, requests, claims of the people and organizations working in Moria but also from the people who live there, waiting for the moment when their asylum claims will be examined by the Greek or European asylum authorities. We talked about how they are stacked, malnourished, die or live without heating, one on top of the other, even in a pandemic where this is supposed to be forbidden, with non-existent hygiene conditions. However, the only thing the Greek State found to do before the coronavirus pandemic occurred was to constantly issue orders restricting movements of the people living in the camp, contrary to the recommendations of the European public health authorities and the World Health Organization.
Not a single one in the Greek corona-virus committee of experts came out to publicly denounce this. Their political responsibilities and also the responsibilities of those who suggest but are not listened to are great. For a number of years now, equal responsibilities must be assigned to the international organizations that did not put even more pressure on the Greek State in order to provide solutions that serve human dignity and life. Concerning the members of the official bodies of the European Union, we wonder if they are even a little bit ashamed, now that they see the results of their policy.
