The road is filled with people sleeping in makeshift tents, hungry and scared. The tent that once used to welcome new refugees to the Moria refugee camp now lies in a pile of charred metal and ash. With Greece’s largest migrant camp engulfed in flames over two days, thousands were left homeless overnight. However, they are not the only migrants whose future is left uncertain by the fire, with many seeing the fire as a symbol of Europe’s failed migrant policy. Though it appears to be a simple fire, it sheds light on a much more fundamental issue that is continuously kept in the dark.

Lesbos, home to the now ruined Moria refugee camp, is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. Although it is Greek territory, the island of Lesbos is only 5.5 kilometers away from the coast of Turkey, from which one only needs to cross a short strait to reach European territory. The Moria refugee camp is the largest refugee camp in Europe and plays a central role in the European Union (EU)’s strategy to slow the movement of refugees into Europe, following the migrant crisis of 2015. While it was originally built for 2200 people, the camp has accommodated almost ten times its intended capacity.

The first fire, which began on the evening of September 8, destroyed the majority of the camp. The following night, a second fire swept over an informal settlement nearby, obliterating the remaining section of the camp. According to local fire chief Konstantinos Theofilopoulos’s words to the Hellenic Broadcasting Station (ERT), the fires broke out in more than three places in a short space of time. 12,000 were left homeless, and about 400 teenagers and children were flown to mainland Greece. Though it is unclear exactly how the fires started, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said that the fire began with asylum seekers who were unhappy with the quarantine measures imposed by the camp.

Inhumane Conditions Swept Under the Rug

While the fire itself seems a mere accident, many point to the government’s inhumane treatment of the camp as a fundamental factor behind the chaos. After the first cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were detected in the camp in early September, the government decided to quarantine the entire camp, rather than to isolate only the infected ones and their close contacts. Medical aid workers protested that the government’s “unnecessary” quarantine measures, which forced thousands to crowd together, put everyone in the camp at risk. On September 12, a number of refugees held a protest against the country’s treatment, refusing to settle down even when the Greek riot police responded with tear gas.

While the future of the refugees at the Moria camp remains unknown, the fire also sheds light on the conditions in the camp which had already been criticized as “dangerous and inadequate” by human rights advocates for years. These conditions are also blamed for the spreading of the fire: overcrowding has forced refugees to set up makeshift shelters in nearby olive groves, where the fire had spread to on the second day, leading to the complete destruction of the camp. “We have been saying that Moria is a ticking time bomb,” says Eva Cossé, a researcher at the Human Rights Watch, in an interview with Time. “It shows how badly the European Union and Greece have managed this situation.”

The Need for Solidarity

In response to the fire, the Greek government announced that most of the refugees who were left homeless by the fire will remain on Lesbos. The decision was made in concern that accepting the refugees’ plea for a mass relocation to the mainland might trigger uprisings among the 15,000 people who are still stuck in refugee camps on four other Greek islands. Meanwhile, the European Commission has proposed the construction of a new, permanent accommodation facility on Lesbos that it would co-manage with Greece.

The EU has also offered to help: Ylva Johansson, the EU home affairs commissioner, agreed to pay for the transfer of 4,000 unaccompanied minors to the mainland. The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) claimed in a statement that they have turned the UNICEF Tapuat Child and Family Support Hub, which is nearby the Moria camp, into an emergency shelter.

A Wake-up Call

With new discussions being sparked on the squalid and inhumane conditions of the refugee camps in Greece, all eyes are on Europe’s response to the fire and what many call their “failed migrant policy.” Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister of Greece, emphasized that the EU must play an active role in solving the refugee problem, adding that the incident at the Moria camp could be an opportunity to improve EU’s migrant policy.

While Prime Minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, offered to “take in 1,000 refugees,” other European countries do not appear as keen. So far, ten countries under the EU have expressed an interest in taking in asylum seekers from the Moria camp. Yet even those countries wish to only take in small numbers of unaccompanied minors: not a measure strong enough to alleviate the burden from the overcrowded camp.

The fire at Moria camp has prompted renewed criticism of Europe’s migrant policy. Indeed, the fire serves as a strong reminder of the urgent need for European solidarity towards a more active and humane attitude regarding the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers. The seemingly endless dilemma has been festering since the European Migrant Crisis in 2015, but it is perhaps time to heal the wound once and for all.