Volunteers restore church in Lesvos trashed by illegal immigrants

The Saint Catherine church in the small town of Moria on Lesvos, hit international headlines when it was trashed by illegal immigrants over a month ago.

Things only got worse for the church when it was being used as a place for illegal immigrants to defecate in.

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.”

However, it appears that there is finally good news for the small chapel located near the infamous Moria migrant camp.

Hearing of the destroyed church, volunteers from Gera in southern Lesvos, close to the town of Plomari, dedicated themselves to restoring it.

Their efforts to restore the church can be seen in the photos below.

In April, the main entrance to the Saint Raphael church close to the Moria migrant camp was also attacked, 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 25,000 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.

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