For German, French, Greek, Italian and Spanish see: https://transversal.at/blog/call-for-the-immediate-evacuation-of-moria
At a time when 12,500 refugees and asylum seekers are wandering homeless on the roads and hills of Lesbos, when those intoxicated and injured in the fire in Moria are prevented by the police from reaching the hospital in Mytilene, when solidarity groups bringing basic necessities are blocked by the forces of order or attacked by far-right groups, when the Greek government‘s only response to this emergency is national-security
We, as European citizens,
can no longer remain silent.
The fire that ravaged the camp of Moria cannot be considered either as an accident or as the result of a desperate action. It is the inevitable and foreseeable result of European policy which imposes the confinement of tens of thousands of refugees in inhuman conditions on the Greek islands. It is the result of the strategy of the Greek government which, instead of taking effective measures against the spread of Covid-19 in „hot-spots“, has for six months now been imposing extremely restrictive restrictions of movement on its inhabitants. In addition to this prolonged confinement, a total sanitary lock-down whose sanitary necessity is more than problematic, has been imposed a week ago, while people positive to the virus were ordered to remain locked up in a shed 24 hours a day. Such dreadful conditions lead straight to disaster.
This intolerable situation, which is a
disgrace to Europe, cannot continue
one day more.
The immediate evacuation of Moria and the relocation of its inhabitants to the various European cities ready to welcome them is more than urgent. The same goes for all the other camps in the Greek islands and on the continent. It is worth recalling here that the Greek government has already undertaken works in ordrer to transform not only the hot-spots but any other reception structure on the mainland into closed centrers surrounded by double fencing and equipped with security gates. What would have happened if the fire in Moria had started in a camp surrounded by a double set of barbed wire with blocked exits? How many thousands of deaths would we have to mourn today?
Let us not leave tens of thousands of people whose only crime is to ask for international protection, at the mercy of an ultra-security policy, extremely dangerous for their safety and even their lives. The Greek government, in the name of the defense of European borders and national security, not only consider himself authorized to violate international law with the systematic push-backs in the Aegean Sea and on the border of Evros, but also prohibits any transfer to the continent of the victims of the Moria fire. For, apart from the transfer of 406 unaccompanied minors to northern Greece, the Mitsotakis government intends to ‚punish‘ the camp residents for the fire by blocking them in Lesbos! 12,500 refugees are currently in danger, deprived of all access to sanitary facilities and exposed to attacks by extreme-right groups.
We will not tolerate that asylum seekers are deprived of all rights, that they are reduced to non-persons. Let us join our voices to demand from the European authorities and our
governments the immediate evacuation of Moria and all camps in Greece, as well as the urgent transfer of their residents to the European cities and towns that have requested it.
NOW and not tomorrow.
The dignity and lives of tens of thousands of people are at stake, but also the dignity of all of us.
Against the policies of exclusion and criminalization of refugees, it is more than urgent to
build a „one“ world, common to all. Otherwise, each of us risks, at any moment, to find himself on the wrong side of the border.
EVACUATION
of Moria NOW!
REINSTALLATION of all its
inhabitants who express their desire to the European cities
ready to welcome them!
Sign at http://chng.it/wjhHcN5r9Q