Violent episodes among refugees in Diavata

The increase in the number of refugees joining the center in the past month combined with the different nationalities hosted there mark the former Anagnostopoulou camp as the Moria, of northern Greece.

As thestival.gr says, on Wednesday night, violent incidents occurred inside the camp. At about 10:00 in the evening a fracas began between two groups of thirty people. On the one side, there were Kurdish refugees from Iraq and Afghans, Algerians and Moroccans on the other. There followed battles in which a young man was stabbed in the torso. He was transferred to the hospital of G. Gennimatas by ambulance. Shortly afterwards his wife was transferred to the hospital after fainting.

Afghans complain that several Kurds have recently been transferred to the hosting center. Some of them have gone through the center illegally, as they have no legal residence documents in the country.

According to the Afghans, the newly-arrived Kurds of the camp seek to displace Afghan families from their containers and take them over. The Kurds claim that the other side is causing problems in the center and that most young people from Morocco and Algeria are using drugs and are out of control.

It took a long time and two squads of riot police and other police officers had  to intervene to calm spirits. The two groups withdrew to their areas, however, they did not enter the containers. To prevent the situation from recurring, a riot police platoon remained inside the center throughout the night.