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Greek Island Pleads for Refugee Evacuations After Fire

Many people had returned, though children had been transferred to other facilities, police said.

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More than 4,000 people were housed at the camp in Moria on Lesbos where the fire broke out late Monday, destroying or damaging about 160 tents according to Greek officials.

Police were sent out after the refugees and were in the process of returning them to the camp, the officer added.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, 5,600 refugees now live on Lesbos, but the island only has capacity for 3,000.

Thousands of refugees have been forced to flee after a large fire erupted at their camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The blaze began after fires were apparently deliberately lit in the Moria camp, following a weekend of citizen and camp protests at the site.

In New York, leaders of 193 states were gathering for the United Nations General Assembly, which was opening with its first ever summit specifically addressing global movements of refugees and migrants. 2016. Greek police say a large fire swept through the big camp for refugees.

Tents at the camp of Moria were “almost entirely destroyed” and containers that provide additional accommodation and health and registration services were damaged, a police source in Athens told AFP.

A spokesman said 2016 is set to be “the deadliest year on record in the Mediterranean Sea” with 3,211 migrants reported dead or missing to date – compared with 3,771 across 2015.

Nine migrants were arrested on public disturbance charges after the chaotic scenes. Many were later given shelter at volunteer-run camps.

Lesbos is hugely overcrowded, with around 5,600 refugees living in an area that only has space for 3,600.

On Lesbos itself there are in excess of 5,600 people, over 2,000 more than the nominal capacity of the camps. “There is a great need for decongestion of the islands.in the future things could become much more hard”, she said.

Last week, migrants in Lesbos staged two demonstrations in the island’s capital, Mytilene, where they demanded the right to travel to mainland Greece having been stranded for months, the Daily Mail reported. But the agreement has been fraught with delays.

More than 850,000 refugees and migrants arrived on the Greek islands previous year, many after risking their lives in unseaworthy boats and dinghies.

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Fire at Greece refugee camp