Greek police have detained six migrants over a fire that razed the Moria refugee camp to the ground, the government said on Tuesday, as thousands of displaced people refused to move to a new facility and demanded to leave Lesbos island.
Authorities were searching for one more person earlier on Tuesday, Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisohoidis said.
According to Ekatherimini sources, the suspects are all Afghan nationals and include two unaccompanied minors, one of whom was arrested in Pieria in northern Greece after having been transferred to a camp there following last Wednesday’s fires.
The officers investigating the fires were reportedly acting on surveillance camera footage and witness testimonies when they arrested the five suspects.
More than 12,000 people, mostly refugees from Afghanistan, Africa and Syria, were left without shelter, proper sanitation or access to food and water after a fire tore through the overcrowded Moria migrant camp last Wednesday.
Thousands of migrants were reluctant to enter a tent camp on the Greek island, a police official said, fearing that life there would be no better than the conditions they endured in Moria.
READ MORE: VIDEO FOOTAGE allegedly catches refugees and migrants starting Moria fires
READ MORE: Moria ‘completely destroyed’ as fire tears through migrant camp
Thousands of people, including women and children, spent the night in makeshift tents on a road outside the temporary camp.
“We have informed them that they must come into the facility, but they have refused,” the police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They want to leave the island.”
Sourced By: Reuters
