Tension at Moria camp following second death
Tensions were high at the overcrowded Moria camp on Lesvos on Friday following the fatal stabbing of a 20-year-old Yemeni migrant at the facility on Thursday night – its second death this year.
Police on Friday arrested a 27-year-old foreign national in connection with the stabbing, which occurred following an altercation between the two men.
The suspect, about whom no other personal details were made available, is said to have stabbed the victim several times. He faces voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges, police said.
The death was the second at the camp this year following that of a 20-year-old Congolese man who was stabbed on New Year’s Eve by a 27-year-old Afghan national who had sought to steal his cellphone.
In intensive care since the incident, the 20-year-old died of his injuries on Wednesday.
Tensions are still simmering at camps on the Aegean islands as, despite the transfer of 4,586 migrants to the mainland this month, they continue to host some 42,000 people.
There is also resentment in local communities where new camps are to be built, both on the islands and on the mainland.
Meanwhile, as Greek authorities continue the search for the people smugglers behind a boat that foundered off Paxos in the Ionian Sea last Saturday, leaving at least 12 migrants dead, police said they found the house in Arta where the migrants are believed to have stayed before the fateful voyage.
