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Europe's refugee policies condemned after mother and baby burn to death in Greek migrant camp

ACTIVISTS hit out at Europe’s treatment of refugees today, the day after  fire in a massively overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos killed a woman and her baby.

The blaze in the European Union-sponsored Moria camp — built to house 3,000 but now home to more than 13,000 people, the majority Afghan — is believed to have started yesterday afternoon near or inside a shipping container in which the woman lived.

Accounts differ between the Lesbos authorities, refugees and charity workers at the scene. The Associated Press agency reported that camp-dwellers started the fire in a desperate protest against their conditions. But soon after police arrived the camp was doused in tear gas and fights ensued.

In a report released in January Oxfam said many of the men, women and children inside the camp are developing “mental-health problems after arriving … because of the squalid living conditions, overcrowding and the long wait for their asylum claim to be processed.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) field co-ordinator Marco Sandrone told the Star that MSF was outraged by the events at Moria, saying that no-one could call the fire and these deaths an accident.

“This tragedy is the direct result of a brutal policy that is trapping 13,000 people in a camp made for 3,000. European and Greek authorities who continue to contain these people in these conditions have a responsibility in the repetition of these dramatic episodes.

“It is high time to stop the EU-Turkey deal [the 2016 deal that effectively turned Greek reception and processing centres into detention camps] and this inhumane policy of containment. People must be urgently evacuated out of the hell that Moria has become.”

Help Refugees, a British non-governmental organisation that provides aid to refugees across the world, said today that keeping people in underresourced camps on the Greek islands makes tragedies like this almost inevitable.

“Today our thoughts are with everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. But it’s not enough to mourn these deaths. Out of sight, out of mind, thousands of refugees are currently trapped on the Greek islands, held in limbo and unable to continue their journey to safety.

“When will European leaders step up to provide a safe, dignified and humane response to the refugees on their shores?”

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