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Fire in the refugee camp on Lesbos: Desperate act in tent 959

2021-03-25T18:19:39.801Z


Did an Afghan refugee really set herself on fire on Lesbos? The federal police assume an "ordinary cooking accident". The report was made public - but it is obviously wrong.


Enlarge image

Temporary camp at Kara Tepe (in September 2020): "My wife often cried"

Photo: Vassilis A. Poularikas / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Tent 959 is at the very edge of the refugee camp in Lesbos.

A gravel road runs behind the tent and circles the camp.

There are seven rows of tents to the sea.

Until recently, Madhavi Noor, 27, who fled Afghanistan, lived here with her two daughters, her son and her husband.

Noor's real name is different, she doesn't want to read her real name in the media.

Eighteen months ago she and her family crossed from Turkey to Lesbos.

Noor saw the Moria slum camp burn down, after which she had to move to the temporary camp near Kara Tepe, even though she was pregnant.

Noor's application for asylum had already been granted.

The authorities had told her that she was to be flown to Germany as part of a relocation program for particularly vulnerable refugees.

However, she still had to wait, the pregnancy prevented the flight.

Enlarge image

Refugee camps right by the sea: families are freezing

Photo: ELIAS MARCOU / REUTERS

Then it happens: On February 21, 2021 a fire breaks out in tent 959.

Neighbors delete it, a shaky mobile phone video shows the situation.

Men and women scream, a man rushes over with a fire extinguisher.

Noor is the only one injured that day.

The flames severely burn her arms, back and one leg, and she has to be treated in hospital.

There are two versions of how the fire started.

NGOs and Greek authorities speak of a suicide attempt.

The public prosecutor's office on Lesvos accuses Noor of arson and wants to indict them.

Noor started the fire to kill himself, it is said.

“Pregnant women set themselves on fire,” reported many media, including SPIEGEL.

Federal police writes of "ordinary cooking accident"

The German Federal Police, however, presented a different version.

A liaison officer was on Lesbos on February 24th, together with the migration officer of the German embassy in Athens, who asked the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The federal police officer prepared a report on the case, which "Die Welt" later took up.

"According to information available to the IOM, and according to photos of the injuries, the Commissioner for Escape and Migration estimates that it is a normal cooking accident - mainly burns on the arms," ​​the newspaper quoted on March 8 as quoting the report.

“Die Welt” therefore writes of “false reports” in German media.

It is not the first time "that the numerous reports from aid organizations about grievances in Greece have been accompanied by exaggerations."

So did NGOs really dramatize the incident?

Did the media fall for it?

SPIEGEL viewed court documents and the fire brigade report and evaluated four witness statements, including those from Noor himself. The researchers questioned Noor's lawyers and IOM employees.

Based on the statements, it is possible to reconstruct what really happened in tent 959.

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Refugees in front of their tent in December 2020: "At the time of the fire there was no electricity in that part of the camp"

Photo: ANTHI PAZIANOU / AFP

The camp near Kara Tepe is located on a former shooting range, it consists of tents that the UN refugee agency procured.

In winter it rains regularly on Lesbos, which is why the camp sinks into the mud again and again for months, the wind then whistles through the tents.

Families are freezing.

Psychologists report of traumatized children who pull their hair out and cut their arms.

Midwives tell stories of women who give birth at the entrance to the camp because the ambulance does not arrive on time.

Many NGOs call the camp »Moria 2.0«.

Before the public prosecutor's office, Noor testified that as a pregnant woman she suffered particularly from the conditions in the camp.

She fell several times on the way to the toilet.

Her husband says he often saw his wife cry and tried to rent an apartment in the island's capital, Mytilini, where living conditions would have been better.

Without success.

The application was rejected.

Cooking accident or attempted suicide?

On the morning of the day on which tent 959 catches fire, Noor is alone with her two daughters, the father washes the seven-year-old son.

She later said she took her two daughters outside.

Then she returned to the tent, took a lighter and set the house on fire.

The fire brigade's report to the court stated that Noor set the synthetic material of the tent on fire.

When the canvas catches fire, Noor remains seated inside.

Enlarge image

Tents at Kara Tepe: ditches against the mud

Photo: MANOLIS LAGOUTARIS / AFP

The father of a neighboring Afghan family finally saves Noor from the fire.

He lives right next door, the areas of the two families in the tent are only separated by a wooden panel.

Before that, he had brought his own daughter to safety, he later said.

He and other refugees put out the fire with blankets and water bottles.

"I wanted to kill myself."

Refugee Afghan woman when she was questioned by the authorities

Noor's husband notices the fire from afar.

When he arrives at the tent, his wife is already on the ground.

The authorities will later ask him if his wife cooked.

"No," he says, "at the time of the fire there was no electricity in that part of the camp."

Cooking accident or attempted suicide?

Noor himself gave a clear answer shortly after the fire: "I wanted to kill myself," she said.

When she heard that her trip to Germany had been refused because of her pregnancy, she was very disappointed.

"I'm supposed to have a caesarean section. That would have made it even more difficult to raise my child because I couldn't get up for two weeks," Noor said in her statement.

Noor faces up to ten years imprisonment

The Greek authorities are convinced that Noor put other people at risk in her suicide attempt.

She is to be charged with willful arson.

The version with the cooking accident would have been an advantage for Noor.

Still, she stuck to her statement.

Enlarge image

Refugees in the camp near Kara Tepe: 7,000 people, more than 2,000 children

Photo: ANTHI PAZIANOU / AFP

The reports from stakeholders and the authorities are not definitive evidence.

Theoretically it is possible that all the witnesses and Noor himself are lying that the Greek authorities are persecuting the woman even though it was an accident.

However, there is nothing to be said for it.

In response to a request from SPIEGEL, the Federal Police announced that the liaison officer had not been present when the embassy employee spoke to IOM.

Apparently, the federal police only noticed the case marginally and only followed it in the first days directly after the fire.

"As of February 25, the information available indicates a cooking accident," writes a spokesman.

The Federal Police did not have any knowledge of any investigations by the Greek authorities.

When asked whether the Federal Police would revise their assessment in view of the evidence, she did not answer.

Perhaps it would have been enough if "Die Welt" or the Federal Police had asked IOM again about the press reports about a suicide attempt, because the organization has apparently not investigated the fire in more detail.

IOM only took care of the woman's departure, it said on request.

Beyond that, no further discussions were held.

Madhavi Noor has now given birth to a son, by caesarean section in the hospital in Mytilene.

She still faces up to ten years in prison.

The family's lawyers have applied for an exit visa.

If the court accepts him, Noor could still be flown to Germany and wait there for her trial.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-03-25

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