Moria Fire: the Accused

The Legal Center Lesvos has been challenging the EU and Greece, and fighting for the the rights of refugees for six years. It’s a tough battle. Take the Moria Fire for example.

forRefugees’ founder Amber, spends time with Victoria and Lorraine at the Legal Centre Lesvos, Greece. July 2022

The fire was in September 2020 and raised the entire camp to the ground. It left 13,000 people homeless, miraculously no casualties, and within weeks the State and UNHCR had built Mavrovouni Camp (still often known as Moria 2).

Greece arrested six young Afghan males for the fire and, I believe, five are still in custody. The theories on who’s responsible for the fire are widespread from far right to local people to camp residents and a mix of all working together.

Everyone hated Moria.

So far the accused young men - at least two of whom were minors in Sep 2020 - have been locked up without a fair trial, a fair review of the evidence, without being identified by any witnesses.

And who in this world right now is going to fight for them? In this hostile world where refugees are considered inconvenient at best, and are hated simply for existing at worst. Who fights for these boy-men?

How do we ever thank Lorraine, Victoria and all the team at LCL for what they do in giving a voice to the voiceless and fighting for human rights the rest of the world has seen fit to override?

Legal battles are rarely quick but that doesn’t mean they’re not rife with challenging deadlines and, when I was there last month, LCL had days to prepare a response to the European Court of Human Rights for the next stage.

Thank you LCL for your commitment and focus on “doing the right thing”. Especially knowing this world can make it almost impossible sometimes .

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