Trashed church on Lesvos becomes toilet for illegal immigrants

By 4 years ago

The Saint Catherine Church in the small town of Moria on Lesvos, is now being used as a bathroom.

A local in Moria described the scene.

"The smell inside is unbearable," said Makis Pavlellis, a butcher. "Discussing with people about the Church, we learned that the metropolitan of Mytilene is aware of the situation in the area nevertheless he does not wish to deal with it for his own reasons."

Only earlier this month Greek City Times reported that the Saint Catherine church in Moria was already trashed by illegal immigrants.

This is only the latest incident and rather it has become extremely common for Greek Orthodox Churches to be vandalised and attacked by illegal immigrants on Lesvos.

Last month, the main entrance to the Saint Raphael church close to the Moria migrant camp was attacked too, as reported by Greek City Times.

This latest incident on Lesvos follows other recent shocking events, including two gangs of Afghani immigrants battling each other, African immigrants ridiculing and coughing on police in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and thousands of olives trees being destroyed.

About half of the 50,000 illegal immigrants on Lesvos are kept at the Moria camp that is supposed to host only 3,000 people. A rise in criminality has hit the island since the migrant crisis began in 2015 when Turkey allowed hundreds of thousands of people to leave and enter Greece illegally, whether via land or sea.

Lesvos, as an island of only 90,000 citizens, has been one of the most hardest hit areas of Greece.

As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to the norms and values of their new countries.

These continued attacks has ultimately seen the people of Lesvos, who were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, become increasingly frustrated by the unresolved situation that has restricted and changed their lives as they no longer feel safe on their once near crime-free island.

Meanwhile, Hungary has contributed $30,000 to assist in the restoration of Lesvian churches destroyed by illegal immigrants, as reported by Greek City Times.

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Athens Bureau