"SLEEPING AMONG THE GRAVES"
"The clock has run out on how long Europe can be without a migration policy. Now is the time to change this," Margaritis Schinas, the European commissioner responsible for migration and asylum policy, said at a press conference in Brussels.
Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Italy where most migrant boats arrive, have long demanded that other EU states take in more asylum seekers but Hungary and Poland, among others, have refused to share the burden.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, speaking alongide Schinas, said France and Germany had agreed to take in most of around 400 minors who have been moved from Lesbos to the Greek mainland.
But there has been no wider agreement on resettlement and Greek authorities have refused any mass transfers off Lesbos.
"Life meets death here," said Eftychia Sougioultzi, a 64 year-old local woman, visiting a cemetery where her daughter is buried. "Yesterday I saw children sobbing, sleeping among the graves."
For the migrants themselves, the outlook is bleak.
"Moria finished," said Zohra, a 25-year-old Afghan woman. "We are two days on the road, no water, no food, very cold at night."
The World Health Organisation said it was sending two emergency medical teams. Officials also said 200,000 rapid COVID-19 tests had been brought to the island to handle a possible upsurge in cases.
In the chaos following Wednesday's fires, authorities have lost track of at least 35 people who had tested positive.
