Refugee Protest Camp in Lesbos Attacked

A group of right wing activists on Sunday evening attacked a group of refugee who have camped in Sappho Square, Lesbos. for five consecutive days to demand better conditions at the island’s Moria refugee camp.

Police were called to the square in Lesbos’ capital Mytilini after the violence erupted at about 8 pm local time, CNN Greece reported.

This video was captured by Norwegian Lina Thingstad, a volunteer with NGO Docmobile. It shows the moment flares and fireworks were ignited near the refugee demonstration in Sappho Square.

Thingstad told Storyful that a lot of demonstrators, many of whom are from Afghanistan, were “injured by stones and flares.”
“Many people went to hospital, and a lot of volunteer medics were working on the spot,” she said. “The refugees did not at any point use aggression or violence.”

Greece’s stated-owned Athens-Macedonian News Agency reported refugees had marched on Mytilini on April 18 to protest over delays in processing asylum applications and false rumors that an Afghan refugee had died due to the conditions in the Moria. The makeshift Moria camp is home to 5,500 refugees, close to double its 2,500 capacity, according a recent report from the New York Times Credit: Lisa Thingstad via Storyful