Clashes and Fires on Lesvos as Refugees Demand to Leave Moria

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Greek Reporter

Hundreds of citizens of Moria camp as well as those of other regions north of Lesvos (Mytilene) have been protesting around the island, at the municipality, the North Aegean Periphery and the General Secretariat of the Aegean and Island policy. Rumors of mass returns to Turkey prompted the incidents, causing 300 migrants to pour out of the Moria hotspot.

The incidents on Monday follow those of Sunday night when there were violent clashes between extremist right-wing factions and anti-state rebels at the island’s Sapphous Square after an attempted removal of a Greek flag from an army track. The tension continued this morning with more protest to the island’s main town.

Residents rallying are calling for the numbers of migrants to be limited to 3,000 refugees and migrants on the island.

Lesvos Mayor Spyros Galinos was caught in the crossfire with right-wing protestors having physically assaulted three women, including a volunteer. All three were rushed to hospital and given first aid treatment. The women complain that the police were present during the attack but failed to intervene.


Read more: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2016/09/19/clashes-and-fires-on-lesvos-as-refugees-demand-to-leave-moria-video/

---

Thousands flee as blaze sweeps through Moria refugee camp in Greece

Thousands of refugees detained at one of Greece’s biggest camps, on the island of Lesbos, have fled the facility amid scenes of mayhem after some reportedly set fire to it, local police have said.

Up to 4,000 panic-stricken men, women and children rushed out of the barbed-wire-fenced installation following rumours of mass deportations to Turkey.

“Between 3,000 and 4000 migrants have fled the camp of Moria,” a police source said, attributing the exodus to fires that rapidly swept through the facility because of high winds. Approximately 150 unaccompanied children, controversially housed at the camp, had been evacuated to a childrens’ village, the police source added. No one was reported to have been injured in the blaze.

But damage was widespread and with tents and prefabricated housing units going up in flames, the Greek channel Skai TV, described the site as “a war zone”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/thousand-flee-as-blaze-sweeps-through-moria-refugee-camp-in-greece

[wordpix]

1. Does the US not see these people need help?

I would like to take in a child/teenager who needs a parent.

[Igel]

2. They are fleeing the terror of a war-torn Turkey.

With armies and marauders everywhere, routine aerial bombardments and even the use of chlorine gas, there's no safe place to stay in Turkey, so these poor people are fleeing for their lives.

Many of the children were left behind. Now it's a crime not to allow them to be reunited with those who abandoned them in the care of friends and relatives. It's a common refrain--abandoning them is fine, but it's wrong to reject the insistence that they be reunited in the target country. Little outcry at the parents' actions, huge outcry at the very idea that perhaps there are two ways of reuniting families.