MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties debated, on Tuesday 27 October, the situation in the Kara Tepe camp that replaced the Moria one after the fire that left more than 12,000 people homeless.
The MEPs wanted to question the Commission and the head of the new working group for Lesbos, Beate Gminder, as well as the Greek government, on the actions to rehouse these people, especially as winter approaches.
The organisation Médecins sans Frontières was also invited and gave a rather negative assessment, recalling that the fire in Moria is a “consequence” and “not the cause” of the crisis.
The Commission claimed that solutions were being found, notably through the relocation of minors or vulnerable people, but that the major challenge remained “to prepare the camp for the winter and to transfer people to the mainland” so that the people in Kara Tepe would not be overcrowded and would live “with dignity”.
Assuring that a real “decongestion” of the island of Lesbos has taken place, the official said that there are currently 9,504 refugees remaining on the island, in Kara Tepe, but also in hotels and apartments. Kara Tepe can accommodate 10,000 people and space must be maintained for pandemic-related measures.
For the challenges ahead, particularly those related to winter, the representative hoped that the tents will “hold up” after recent bad weather had flooded some of them.
Since the new permanent structure will only be completed in the autumn of 2021. This camp will be a “non-closed” multi-purpose centre (it will have to implement the rules proposed by the Pact), but with rules for controlling entry and exit.
The Greek government, for its part, said it was “happy” that Moria no longer existed, as the camp (which had been in operation since 2013) was “a disgrace for Greece and the EU”, commented Manos Logothetis. His government's immediate action consisted in relocating and transferring to the continent the most vulnerable, minors, women with children or single women. So far, 2,500 people have been relocated to other Member States and the authorities are trying to further reduce the number of people on the spot.
For MSF, however, as Aurélie Ponthieu said, we are still far from the mark, pointing to the lack of access to sanitation and water, but also to the weakness of medical responses, for vaccination, as well as for the management of mental illness. Kara Tepe reproduces “the same shortcomings as Moria, this camp is not to be congratulated”.
Frontex Management Board extraordinary meeting
Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, for her part, announced on Twitter that she had convened, for 10 November, an extraordinary meeting of the Frontex Management Board to discuss the agency's refoulement (pushback) charges (see EUROPE 12590/4) and fundamental rights, following a request from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)