Clashes break out on Lesbos after Greek police 'assault' refugee

ATHENS - Protests and clashes broke out in a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Tuesday, as police temporarily lost control of the site. Black smoke was seen rising from the camp as refugees burnt bins and built barricades at the main fence.

Fences were torn down and some refugees fled the Moria camp, which has been a closed detention centre since 20 March. Greek police responded by deploying riot control units and firing tear gas at the protesters.

According to refugees inside the camp, violence began at around 4pm after a Greek police officer assaulted a teenage Syrian refugee. The teenager was part of a group of Syrian and Afghan minors who approached police and demanded to be released from a closed facility for minors in the camp.

Shamshaid Jutt, a 21-year-old refugee from Pakistan, described the scene to Middle East Eye over the phone.

“The minors kept saying to the police, ‘Give us freedom, give us freedom,’ but the police said no,” Jutt said.

“Then one policeman kicked a Syrian minor, and then older guys [refugees] came and attacked the policeman. Then police came and started using tear gas and then it just increased and increased.

“[The minors] want freedom from detention, because some have been there one month, some two months, and they cannot leave. They are bored and are constantly requesting to the UNHCR (UN refugee agency) and the police: ‘Please let us out into the main area [of the camp]'."

“The police are outside the gate and they are throwing tear gas at the guys who are protesting. People have broken windows and doors. They have set fire to blankets and bins. Everything is broken.”

Ayesha Keller, a humanitarian volunteer on Lesbos, told MEE by phone that police put minors in a separate closed facility in the camp for their own protection.

“The idea is that they are vulnerable and need to be held separately,” she said. “They are meant to be released after just two weeks, but the system is back-logged, so some have been there for over a month.

“I saw a lot of tear gas and people bleeding. There were a lot of flying objects - tear gas canisters, stones, chairs, bits of glass.”

According to other refugees in the camp several minors have sustained serious injuries due to the violence.

“Three children are next to me getting stitches because their heads are bleeding. Other minors inside have broken arms and legs,” Gulfam Hassan, a 33-year-old Pakistani refugee, told MEE by phone.

Tensions in the camp have been increasing in recent weeks due to overcrowding, lack of food and the EU’s plan to deport all irregular migrants who arrive in Greece back to Turkey.

Shamshaid Jutt said that a fight had broken out earlier in the day in the queue for food. That fight, in addition to the lack of food, escalated tensions inside the camp.

“There are daily fights in the food line, and earlier today [Tuesday] there was a big fight, and many people didn’t get any food,” he said.

Boris Cheshirkov, a UNHCR spokesperson on Lesbos, confirmed that there had been an escalation of violence in the camp and that the refugee agency had withdrawn most of their staff from the camp over concern about their safety.

“We have observed tensions over the last few days and today [Tuesday] there was growing tension at the site with people protesting due to their detention, and this one again reinforces the need for alternatives to detention.

“We’ve minimised our presence inside the centre due to security considerations. We understand that the situation is now calmer inside.”