The police use tear gas against the migrants evicted by the fire in Moria

Greek police fired tear gas this Saturday during a protest by migrants who have been left homeless after the fire in the Moria refugee camp, the largest in Europe, last Wednesday.

The 13,000 residents of the camp ask to be transferred off the Greek island of Lesbos, but the authorities have begun to build a new center to house them.

They have been sleeping in the streets and fields for four nights.

Hundreds of migrants, many shouting "freedom" and "no to the countryside", demonstrated on the island while bulldozers continued with the construction work of the new center.

"We do not want to live in a hell like Moria's again" and "Can you hear us, Mrs. Merkel?" Were some of the phrases that could be seen this Saturday on some posters.

Police fired tear gas as some of the protesters tried to go down a road to the port of Mytilene, blocked since the fire to prevent residents of Moria from trying to leave the island.

The fire in the countryside, which was home to 13,000 people, four times more than its capacity, has once again brought first-hand the migration crisis facing the EU, which has been trying for months to carry out a consensus pact among the 27. The Government Greek refuses to carry out massive transfers of refugees from the island, located a few kilometers off the Turkish coast, to Athens.

The only ones transferred since the fire have been 400 unaccompanied minors, who will be distributed among nine EU countries and Switzerland.

The Greek Migration Minister, Notis Mitarakis, has assured that the first refugees who have been left homeless will be able to enter the same facility that they are setting up nearby today.

Speaking to the private chain Skai, Mitarakis pointed out that all the people who enter the new field will be subjected to coronavirus tests.

At the time of the fire there were 35 people with the virus, but most of them have lost track.

The Government insisted that the Greek islands can no longer carry the burden of migration alone and called on Europe to show its solidarity.