What remains: Four years after Moria

On September 8th 2020, Europe’s largest refugee camp burned to the ground. Moria was already known for its overcrowded and disastrous conditions. Four years after the disaster, Sea-Eye is calling for real solutions and an asylum policy based on solidarity.

When the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos went up in flames four years ago, almost 13,000 people were left homeless in one fell swoop. The disaster was followed by widespread horror at the conditions in the overcrowded camp: ‘No more Morias’ was the EU’s message at the time.

But ‘many more Morias’ have now been decided. This year, with the passing of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the EU has enshrined in law what the camp stood for: The deprivation of rights and dehumanisation of people seeking protection – with the aim of deterrence. Moria may have burned down, but the underlying principle of exclusion and isolation continues to burn. The EU is fighting the flames with fire – fuelled by the far right.

We demand: Real solutions must finally emerge from the ashes of Moria – an asylum policy based on human rights and real solidarity! A Europe that does not cram children into segregated detention centres at its external borders. A Europe that does not pay authoritarian regimes to prevent people from fleeing Libyan refugee camps. A Europe that does not send people back to the open sea, to Turkey, Tunisia or Libya – and leave them to their fate in Libyan torture camps. This is what we stand for as part of European civil society!