Scores homeless after Greek migrant camp fire: Official

ATHENS-Agence France-Presse

A fire burns behind makeshift tents used by asylum-seekers in Samos Island Greece, late on Oct. 14, 2019. (AP Photo)

Scores of asylum-seekers were left homeless when a fire tore through a  camp on the Greek island of Samos, a migration ministry official said on April 27.    

"Around 200 people have been left homeless," Migration Ministry Secretary Manos Logothetis told AFP.    

There were no immediate reports of injuries.    

The blaze on April 26 evening was started "amid internal disputes (between residents)", Logothetis added.    

The Samos camp is massively overcrowded, with nearly 7,000 people in a facility built to handle fewer than 650.    

The Greek government had planned to relocate to the mainland over 2,300 asylum seekers from island camps -- including many elderly and ailing persons -- but the operation has been delayed owing to fears of coronavirus contagion.    

No coronavirus case has been officially reported in camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos.     

But there have been outbreaks in two camps and a migrant hotel on the mainland.    

Another fire in the migrant camp on Chios earlier this month destroyed the facilities of the European asylum service, a camp canteen, warehouse tents and many housing containers in a riot started after a 47-year-old Iraqi woman died there.    

Residents attributed her death to coronavirus. Officials denied this was true.