Greece: Fire sweeps through refugee camp on virus lockdown

Refugees and migrants run as fire burns in the Moria refugee camp on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. Fire Service officials say a large refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has been partially evacuated despite a COVID-19 lockdown after fires broke out at multiple points around the site early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)

ATHENS, Greece — Fire swept through Greece’s largest refugee camp that had been placed under COVID-19 lockdown, leaving more than 12,000 migrants in emergency need of shelter on the island of Lesbos on Wednesday.

In dramatic scenes overnight, the migrants at Moria refugee camp fled fires that broke out at multiple points and gutted much of the camp and surrounding hillside olive groves. Protests also broke out involving migrants, riot police, and firefighters.

“It has been a very difficult night,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said, adding that a state on emergency would be declared later Wednesday on the island.

Some 12,500 people were living at the Moria camp and the surrounding area, where additional restrictions have been imposed over the past week after a Somali resident tested positive for the coronavirus.

There were no reports of injuries.

The fires broke out overnight, police and fire officials on the island told The Associated Press, adding the cause of the blazes, as well as the full extent of the damage, remained unclear. They did not confirm local reports that the fires had been set deliberately in protest at the lockdown measures but said firefighters had “met resistance” from some camp residents.

Government spokesman Petsas said that arson was being considered as a possible cause of the fire. Before dawn, riot police set up cordons along a highway near the camp to restrict the movements of migrants.

Health authorities on Tuesday said 35 people at the camp had been confirmed infected with the virus so far after a major testing drive was ordered at the overcrowded facility. Those with confirmed infections were being kept in isolation at a separate site that was not affected by the fire, officials said.

Lesbos was Europe’s busiest crossing point in 2015-16 for illegal migration during a massive westward movement of refugees, many fleeing war in Syria and Iraq and traveling through Turkey.

After that wave of migration, Greece set up camps on Lesbos and four other islands, helped with European Union funding, and more recently also set up a network of camps on the mainland.

Firefighters on Lesbos were also battling two other forest fires on the west of the island Wednesday.