European Affairs Office Joins Call to Evacuate Moria Camp
by Abriel SCHIEFFELERS
In early September, Moria refugee camp went up in flames, leaving over 12,000 people without shelter amidst a global pandemic. The refugee camp had long been criticized as being over-crowded, with a severe lack of hygiene and safety, and housed refugees who had been in a state of asylum limbo for years.
The European Union is at a critical turning point and will soon establish a new Migration and Asylum Pact. Therefore, it is important for decision makers to consider the failure of the current system and make practical steps to address the human rights abuses that have occurred throughout the past few years as a result of the migration crisis.
A petition by the organization Choose Love calls on European leaders and the European Commission to:
- Immediately evacuate all people who had to flee Moria camp. Basic human rights to shelter, food, sanitation facilities and healthcare cannot be upheld on Lesvos or the other Greek islands. Urgently decongest the islands and focus on relocation across Europe.
- Abandon any future approach to migration that would again trap people in inhumane conditions in camps on islands (or facilities at borders), awaiting a decision on their asylum claim. The policy of restricting asylum seekers’ movement from the islands to mainland Greece has to end.
- Implement migration policies that ensure protection, as opposed to exclusion. This requires increased solidarity and responsibility sharing between European countries, and an end to systematic human rights abuses at the borders.
The European Affairs Office has co-signed the petition and invites The Salvation Army throughout Europe to join in signing this petition and continuing to raise awareness about the inhumane conditions in refugee camps in Europe. The petition can be found here.
Tags: Europe