Refugees and migrants carry their belongings as they flee from a fire burning at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Elias Marcou TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Four Afghan asylum-seekers were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Greece on Saturday for their part in a fire that destroyed the Moria migrant camp last year.
The men, charged with arson with risk to human life over the fire on the island of Lesbos last September, were found guilty after a court rejected a request by lawyers for three of them to be tried by a juvenile court because they were under 18 at the time.
The severely overcrowded camp, home to more than 12,000 migrants and refugees, was under COVID-19 lockdown at the time after a cluster of cases had been detected there.
Last year after the incident, development Minister Adonis Georgiadis on Wednesday called for the immediate deportation of any residents of the Moria migrant camp who may have contributed to a fire that destroyed the facility earlier in the day, as reported by Greek City Times.
“People who do not respect the Laws of the Hellenic Republic and who destroy public property do not deserve asylum in Greece,” Georgiadis said in a post on Twitter.
Georgiadis, who is also vice-president of the ruling conservative New Democracy party, was reacting to allegations that the fire was started by residents responding to lockdown restrictions and measures imposed after 35 people tested positive for COVID-1
A new temporary camp was set up on the site of an old army firing range but tenders have been launched for new closed centres on Lesbos and the nearby island of Chios.