Moria camp displaced protest and appeal for help

Migrants and refugees left without shelter after fires at the overcrowded Moria camp on Lesbos on Saturday protested the construction of a replacement camp.

The protesters were demanding to be allowed to leave the Greek island.

That would require severe bending of European Union rules, under which asylum-seekers reaching Greece's islands from Turkey must stay there until they are either granted refugee status or deported back to Turkey.

Military personnel on Friday were seen setting up tents with the United Nations refugee agency's logo at an army base which was less than half a mile (800 meters) away from the makeshift shelters on a road to the island's main town.

Officials have said the Tuesday and Wednesday night blazes were deliberately set by some camp residents angered at quarantine and isolation orders imposed after 35 people in the Moria camp tested positive for COVID-19.