The major fire that broke out on Sunday, September 19, in the evening, in the migrant camp at the gates of the city of Vathy, on the Greek island of Samos, was under control at the beginning of the night, the ministry announced. Greek Migration.
“There is no danger for those who are still there, because the fire has started in abandoned barracks in the western part of the camp”, added the ministry in a statement.
Shortly before, the mayor of Samos, Girgos Stantzos, had told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the camp had been fully evacuated of its occupants. Many migrants were gathered in a parking lot near the camp, where children were crying, an AFP team found.
According to the ministry, all asylum seekers were transported to this empty land, near the entrance to the camp, and will be transferred on Monday to a new structure inaugurated on Saturday. Ten unaccompanied minors were taken to the new camp on Sunday evening, according to the same source.
On the Aegean island of Samos, facing Turkey, the slum of Vathy housed nearly 7,000 asylum seekers at its peak between 2015 and 2016, for an initial capacity of 680 people. Some 300 still lived there this weekend in unsanitary conditions and agreed to be transferred to a new reception and reception center “Controlled and closed”, where they are due to report on Monday, according to the Greek Migration Ministry.
Barbed wire, X-ray scanners and magnetic doors: this camp, the first of a ” new generation “, was inaugurated on Saturday in Samos. Humanitarian organizations have denounced the closed nature of the new camp: migrants will only be allowed to go out during the day, with electronic badges, and a detention center is planned for those refused asylum.
The Vathy camp has long been criticized for its unsanitary conditions, a veritable slum where rats roamed at the gates of the main town of the island.
A year ago, the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesvos, also criticized for its unsanitary conditions, was reduced to ashes in two successive fires, leaving some 13,000 migrants homeless for several days.
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