Editorial: Horror

The images revealed by investigative reporting at the Moria refugee camp, on the island of Lesvos, are not only shameful. They are images of horror.

Aside from the inhuman living conditions and misery, one is confronted with Sharia law, drug dealing, prostitution, rapes, and beatings.

Tough gangs which act unchecked in the central structure of the camp, and jihadists who impose their own rules, make for a setting reminiscent of the dark depths of the Middle Ages.

For this miserable situation, which offends humanity and embarrasses the country internationally, the Greek state does nothing – no care and no social services.

An absent state allows a part of Greek territory to be transformed into a jungle, where might makes right.

The state allows people who have experienced the pain of war and uprooting to live in conditions of absolute terror. In this terrifying daily life, it offers no way out and no prospects.

From the start, the government believed that it could use refugee flows to gain benefits in negotiations with creditors. The defence minister went as far as to speak of Greece exporting jihadists.

Now, the jihadists are here. The government is once again deceiving itself if it believes that this time it can any longer hide the truth about the shame of Moria – and the horror.