Lesbos burns, the EU disappears | The HuffPost

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“We have seen the fire spread over Moria and rage all night. The entire camp was engulfed in flames, causing a mass flight of people without direction. Scared children and shocked parents ”. The words of Marco Sandrone, project leader of Doctors Without Borders, describe the hell of Lesbos. Last night the largest refugee camp in Europe burned down, with over 12,000 people housed on this island, the natural border of immigration from the East to Europe. Thousands of people are on the run, including over 30 covid positive. But not even this tragedy inspires solidarity and real participation in the European states.

No help, while Greece declares a state of emergency. Except from Norway, which is willing to accept 50 refugees, on condition that – this is the condition set by the Oslo government – they fall within the quota of the three thousand that the Scandinavian country must accept for this year. The rest is a stammering of solidarity or silence.

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In Brussels, the immigration issue is still not the priority of this phase, focused on the European response to the economic crisis from Covid. The fire, among other things, falls on the day of the weekly meeting of the European commissioners. However, they do not delve into the issue, knowing that national governments do not grasp the urgency. “There had been other redistributions of migrants to other European countries and there were also plans for the next few months, now I don’t know if there have been other offers. It was not discussed at the college meeting ”, says European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen says she is “ready to assist Greece” and in the meantime sends the Vice President Margaritis Schinas, responsible for immigration, to the scene.

“We are currently providing immediate help with relocation support and housing creation in mainland Greece,” says European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. “On other issues, I think it is too early now to speak out”, he adds, expressing the “closeness of the College and also its staff to people and those who work in the field”. “We are in close contact with the Greek authorities” to help “through the Civil Protection mechanism according to the needs that Athens will identify”, but, the “solidarity of the member states is essential” and the priorities are the “safety of the people involved, give help, shelter and good hygienic conditions ”to those who need it.

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I am close to those who have experienced a terrible night in #Lesbos for the fire of the camp of #Moria which housed thousands of refugees. @EU_Commission collaborates with the Greek authorities to manage the humanitarian emergency

– Paolo Gentiloni (@PaoloGentiloni) September 9, 2020

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“The images coming from the Moria camp are devastating. We must mobilize in support of women, men and children in need of shelter, immediately. This is a humanitarian emergency, Europe must show its solidarity ”, says the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli.

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The images from #Moria are devastating. We have to mobilise to support the women, men and children who need a roof over their heads immediately.

This is a humanitarian emergency, Europe must show its solidarity!

— David Sassoli (@EP_President) September 9, 2020

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“Last night’s events serve as a strong reminder of the urgent need for an EU Pact on human and child-friendly migration, which respects the rights of children to adequate protection and services throughout Europe”, reads a note from Unicef that in its ‘Tapuat’ center, near the Moria camp, is hosting over 150 unaccompanied minors who have escaped the flames. But “over 4,000” children are housed in the camp destroyed by the fire, recalls the UN agency, “407 unaccompanied minors, extremely vulnerable”.

Yet not even this latest Greek tragedy changes the agenda of EU national governments, as it did for chaos landings in Lampedusa this summer, far less serious than a fire in the largest reception center on the continent. Immigration is not one of the priorities of the current German presidency, focused on the pandemic as well as on the difficult negotiations on Brexit (again blocked on a peak of tension between London and Brussels), the tug-of-war with Donald Trump, the negotiations with China for future agreements on investments (on Monday the EU- China by videoconference).

The European Commission is expected to present an immigration package, including the Dublin reform postponed since last spring. But, even if the presentation were confirmed, the dossier does not seem to have any concrete possibility of ending up in first place on the agenda of the meetings of leaders in the European Council for the end of the year. Unless the Lesvos crisis fails to change the cards in the coming days: for now, no signs in this direction.

Meanwhile in Greece, the strong wind hinders the operations to tame the fire. People keep running away. The government of Athens, in dialogue with Brussels, is looking for other accommodation options in the continental part of the country. Syriza’s former premier Alexis Tsipras, now in the opposition, attacks the current head of the executive Kyriakos Mitsotakis as “personally responsible for the crisis in Lesbos”.

Certainly, Europe has lost its largest refugee camp, the place where the vast majority of refugees from the east were ‘parked’, a buffer zone for arrivals on which the European states ‘rocked’. From now on, they can no longer.

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Lesbos burns, the EU disappears | The HuffPost

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