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News > Greece

Thousands of Refugees Demand To Be Released From Lesbos Island

  • Asylum seekers protest against the new camp at Kara Tepe on Lesbos island, Greece, Sept. 11, 2020

    Asylum seekers protest against the new camp at Kara Tepe on Lesbos island, Greece, Sept. 11, 2020 | Photo: EFE

Published 11 September 2020
Opinion

"We want to leave, let us go free," shouted the people near the police cordon that fences the entire area.

Thousands of refugees who remain locked up on the island of Lesbos started a strong protest to demand that the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis administration offer adequate solutions to over 12,700 people who were left homeless after the fire at the Moria camp.

RELATED:

Greece: Blaze in Lesbos Island Destroys Largest Refugee Camp

Besides rejecting the provision of tents as a temporary accommodation option, the refugees demand that they be allowed to leave the island.

"We want to leave, let us go free," shouted people near the police cordon that fences the entire area and the access roads to Mytilene, the island's capital.

The installation of the first provisional camp is taking place amid a strong security device that uses riot squads and tanks. The supplies and tents were brought in by helicopter because the local population has blocked the roads to prevent the construction of a new camp.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pointed out that what happened in Moria should help European countries realize that migratory flows cannot be managed only by those countries located at the external borders of Europe.

"We need an ambitious new migration and asylum policy and we will look forward to the proposals with great interest," Schinas said in a meeting with European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced that his country will host up to 150 children without parents who fled the fire in Moria. France said it could also receive a similar number of refugees.

Recently, the mayors of the German cities of Bielefeld, Dusseldorf, Freiburg, Giessen, Gottingen, Hannover, Cologne, Krefeld, Oldenburg, and Potsdam reaffirmed their willingness to offer humanitarian accommodation to those seeking protection in Europe.

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