Photo by Moria Corona Awareness Team
by Mahdia Hossaini
I have to add the morning of the 9th September 2020 to my list of unforgettable days in Greece. All the media channels and social media talk about the fire in Moria and I asked myself what happened to the “City of the Forgotten” that surprised everyone again?
Since yesterday, we have been watching the messages of regret from the Greek government officials due to the events of Moria. I watched the finger of blame being pointed at the migrants from all sides. You should know however, Mr. Prime Minister, expressing your regret does not change anything. Expressing your grief for the homeless does not relieve the thousands of refugees who have taken refuge in your country. How exactly do you recognize the difficult situation in Moria? It’s good that you mentioned the word humanity in your speech and I wish you really meant that word for us, even just a little. Because I lost the meaning of this word in Moria, where I witnessed and narrated the events transpiring there.
Humanity towards weak people! The exact phrase you used. What exactly does this mean? What exactly do you mean by weak people? Because being weak or vulnerable and living in Moria aren’t compatible at all. In between your speeches, you proudly announced that 13,000 migrants had been transferred from Moria since the beginning of the year, but did not say clearly where they had been transferred to. You did not say that the people who are displaced in Victoria Square are included, or the people that live in tents in the courtyards of the Schisto and Malakasa camps, or the migrants who were transferred from Victoria Square to the closed camp of Amygdaleza yesterday, among other camps.
Mr. Minister of Migration, you who consider the migrants to be the cause of the fire, I want to know how did you reach this conclusion so quickly. Mr. Minister of Migration, I want to know exactly what you stand for. The dysfunctional asylum process? Granting asylum to people without going through the asylum interview in Moria just to evacuate the camp faster? Leaving the migrants in Victoria Square without any plans for them or help in order to stand on their own, or keeping 13,000 migrants in a camp like Moria, which I think is your biggest responsibility alone.
According to some sources, the fire could have easily started by fascists, which makes sense to a lot of people since we are getting closer to the day of the Greek Court’s judgment regarding the Golden Dawn’s crimes.
Oh you who blame the migrants for this fire, just imagine for a moment the burden that they are experiencing; a burden that can resort a person to set themselves and their family on fire. Perhaps their motto is: “We’ll burn ourselves to be remembered”.
I don’t know when the end will come for the “hell” Moria is, but I do know that every beginning has an end. And though the “hell” will end, I know that it will remain in our mind and will never be erased. Except, perhaps, from the possibility of Alzheimer’s disease. Out of 13.000 people that live in Moria there are a few who actually said that they will forget the events which transpired in Moria, but the name of Moria will forever be recorded in Greek history.
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Photo by Moria Corona Awareness Team
