Moria: What happens when press coverage ceases
Interest in the Greek refugee camp Moria has died down since the camp was destroyed by fire.
On 8 September 2020, several fires have devastated Greece’s largest migrant camp. They made the overcrowded facility on the island of Lesbos uninhabitable, leaving nearly 13,000 people without shelter.
Immediately after the fires broke out, it made the news, with Google searches for “refugee camp Moria” reaching an all-time high.
But the data also shows that the attention did not last long. Just a week after the fires, the interest faded away, with Google searches dropping.
Franziska Grillmeier, a German journalist living on Lesvos, saw this coming. She raises the question if everything will start all over again in the new camp.
New camp, same situation
Since the fires, European countries have agreed to take some refugees and asylum seekers have been moved to a new camp. But mostly, the situation remains unchanged.
The overcrowded camp makes it impossible for the refugees to keep their distance.
“In the new camp, people who tested positive for the coronavirus and people who tested negative are isolated together behind barbed wire. It is a crime”, said Erik Marquardt, Member of the European Parliament for the Alliance 90/The Greens political party, in an interview with ZDF.
He adds:
“They often don’t even have running water to wash their hands.”
Marquardt criticises the Parliament in Brussels for saying, there should never be a Moria again, while at the same time the situation on Lesvos is worsening every day.
“We keep walking against the same wall without pain.”
