Photos: Fires reduce Greece’s Moria migrant camp to a smouldering mass

The remains of Greece's notoriously overcrowded Moria refugee camp after a second fire overnight destroyed nearly everything that had been spared in the original September 8 blaze. Aid agencies have long warned of dire conditions at Moria, a facility built to for just over 2,750 people but housing over 12,000. The camp accommodates people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia who arrive clandestinely on the island from the nearby Turkish coast, and has become a symbol of what critics say is Europe’s failure to humanely handle the migration and refugee situation.

Updated on: Sep 10, 2020 7:01 PM IST

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A migrant woman sitting in the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece on September 10. A second fire in Greece's largest Moria refugee camp has destroyed nearly everything that had been spared in a blaze two days prior, Greece's migration ministry said on September 10, leaving thousands more people in need of emergency housing. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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A couple sits under a blanket on a road following a fire at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos on September 10. Thousands of asylum seekers on Lesbos were seen camping on roadsides. Desperate families, many with young children, spent a second night in the open, many without tents or even basic bedding. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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A view of the gutted Moria camp on September 10 in Lesbos. A fire late on September 8 in the camp, which is Greece’s most notoriously overcrowded migrant facility, had sent thousands fleeing for safety into surrounding olive groves. While nobody was seriously hurt, the blaze destroyed the official part of the camp, which housed 4,000 people, AFP reported. (AFP)

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People flee flames after another fire broke out in the Moria migrants camp on September 9. This second fire late on September 9 destroyed most of what remained unscathed from the previous night and housed another 8,000 people living in tents and makeshift shacks around the perimeter, the Greek migration ministry said in a statement. (Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)

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People in Moria camp after a major fire broke out, on September 9. Police reinforcements were brought in to prevent migrants from reaching the island’s main town of Mytilene. The migration ministry said it would take “all necessary steps” to ensure that vulnerable groups and families had shelter, but these were expected to be met with stiff resistance from local residents, Reuter reported. (Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)

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Two children leave after the second fire broke out in the Moria migrants camp on September 9. Greek authorities transferred 406 unaccompanied minors to safe locations the mainland early on September 10, the Greek Prime Minister’s office said. (Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)

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A migrant pushes his belongings past the burnt camp of Moria on September 10. Authorities were already at loggerheads with Lesbos residents over plans to replace Moria with a closed reception centre, which the residents fear would mean thousands of asylum seekers remaining their permanently. (Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)

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A migrant carries water along the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece on September 10. Early morning saw former residents of the camp, which had been under coronavirus lockdown, return to the area to pick through the charred remains of their belongings, salvaging what they could. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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New, small fires sprang up in the remains of tents set up outside the camp, fanned by strong winds on September 10 morning. Authorities say the original fire in the camp on the island of Lesbos was deliberately started September 8 evening by residents angered by quarantine measures imposed to contain a Covid-19 outbreak after 35 people tested positive. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)