Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos, is 4 miles from Turkey and is a gateway between the Middle East and Europe. Migrants running from war, persecution, torture, as well as the consequences of climate change, pass as they travel from east to west, hoping for a better life in Europe.
Built to house about 3,000 people, it is now home to more than 13,000 (including an estimated 1,000 unaccompanied minors)—more than it has ever held. The refugees wait, sometimes for more than a year, for the slow wheels of Greek bureaucracy to turn, to review their asylum applications, to send them to the mainland for a decision.
What is Moria? It is where Europe’s known ideals—solidarity, human rights, a safe haven for victims of war and violence—dissolve in a tangle of bureaucracy, indifference, and lack of political will and now a growing movement of reactionism from fascists and rising right wing parties. It is the normalization of a humanitarian crisis. It is the moral failure of Europe.