By Alagie Manneh
Police in the Greek island of Samos last Friday launched a man-hunt for a 20-year-old Gambian in connection with a fire that broke out near the island’s migrant reception centre on Wednesday.
The authorities first detained a 42-year-old Syrian national, and are now seeking the Gambian, Ekathimerini reports.
About 13,000 people, mostly refugees from Afghanistan, African countries including The Gambia and Syria, were left without shelter, proper sanitation or access to food and water by the fire that tore through Moria, Greece’s biggest camp.
According to police, the Syrian sent messages to migrants living in the centre in Arabic via WhatsApp, urging them to set fires.
The 20-year-old Gambian is alleged to have posted messages on Facebook calling on migrants to burn the same camp.
They both face charges of incitement to commit crimes.
According to the Greek medium, the fire came a week after a blaze razed the Moria camp on nearby island Lesvos. Some 12,000 people now left homeless on Lesvos are being gradually moved in to a new facility on the island.
No one was killed in the fire, which broke out after quarantine measures were imposed following the discovery of COVID-19 cases on the site, news agencies reported.
