African asylum-seeker is stabbed to death and three others injured in mass brawl at overcrowded Greek migrant camp
- The fight was with a rival Afghan group that left three Africans with knife wounds
- One of them was the man who died and a fourth African was beaten with a club
- Moira has been in lockdown since March 18, adding to tensions with residents
A young asylum seeker from Africa died after a fight broke out with another group at the Greek camp of Moira on Lesbos island.
The brawl was with a rival Afghan group that left three Africans with knife wounds and one beaten with a club, local police said.
One of the three with knife wounds was the young victim who died early on Monday morning.
The fight with the Afghan group is believed to have been started over a stolen cellphone.
Police said they used flash grenades to disperse the groups and avoid a larger clash between them.
Moria is a camp that was originally built to host less than 2,800 people but there are currently about 17,000 people crammed into it living in squalor.
Pictured: Improvised tents around the refugee camp of Moira, on Lesbos island, where about 17,000 people live in squalor
This year has seen a spate of violence with stabbings killing at least five people including a woman and a young boy.
Greece’s largest asylum-seeker camp has also seen ten people injured in the same attacks.
Moira, and other camps, have also been under lockdown since March 18 which has added to the tension among residents.
The lockdown, allowing only limited movement in small groups, has now been extended to July 19.
No virus cases have been reported in camps across the islands, where there are over 29,000 people crammed in facilities built for fewer than 6,100.
Moira has been under lockdown, allowing movement in small groups, since March 18. Pictured: An asylum seeker walking though the camp
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has previously criticised the lockdown extension as ‘discriminatory’ and ‘counter-productive.’
‘This population doesn’t represent a risk. They are at risk,’ said Marco Sandrone, the group’s Lesbos field coordinator.
He was noting that people were trapped in overcrowded camps with limited access to water and sanitation, and where social distancing measures were ‘just impossible’ to apply.
The Greek government had planned to relocate more than 2,300 asylum seekers from island camps to the mainland, including elderly and ill people, but the operation has been stalled by the pandemic.