Kara Tepe Migrant Camp

Kara Tepe camp is located on the island of Lesbos, Greece. It is intended as temporary shelter for the droves of immigrants who have crossed the Mediterranean Sea, most often from the shores of Turkey,Tunisia and Libya. The new tent camp was hastily built after a fire destroyed the nearby Moria Camp on 9 September, 2020. The fire displaced over 12,000 people, many of them children, who are in a years-long wait to seek asylum in the EU. They often desire Germany as their final destination (Germany has accepted 1,500 after the fire.) The wait may never end for some, as most countries don't want them, so they are stuck in legal limbo and squalid conditions in various camps in Greece. Moria was known as the most hellish camp in Europe.

Camp residents slept rough in the days before the new camp was finished. Before the Moria Camp burned, 7,000 were tested for Covid-19 and 243 were diagnosed with the disease, average age being 24 and most without obvious symptoms. Immediate quarantine was declared, so this was lockdown inside a lockdown, of sorts. 

 
DW News video

The fire was found be be arson. Desperation is understandable, as this crisis has been ongoing for years, but putting the lives of thousands in danger in order to protest a lockdown was unspeakable.

Four Afghan asylum seekers have been charged with starting the fire on 8 September. The Greek government has said they were protesting against lockdown measures introduced after a coronavirus outbreak at the site.
[Source]

An interesting discovery while looking at that section of Lesbos' coast: there are some neighborhoods and small industrial areas that have been given the large pixel treatment. Some of the beaches, and perhaps ocean rocks, were also pixelated. Street View, place labels and photos are still functioning. I then noticed that  a few areas elsewhere on the island were also given the big pixel treatment. After a lot of thought about why this could be, I have theorized that it is perhaps an ineffectual attempt to hide specific buildings or neighborhoods from the refugees - young males, especially. It is not hard to imagine there is a problem with theft and/or vandalism in the area. Would having your house or business inside a section of big pixels prevent this? Of course not, but maybe it gives the owners some sense of control over the situation in their small town. As for the pixelated beaches, that doesn't fit my theory and it certainly doesn't hide anything from anyone looking from above (as on Google Earth). Take a look and give your ideas on the purpose of the Big Pixels of Lesbos.

Folder with the former Moira Camp and location of the new Kara Tepe Camp...
Kara Tepe camp.kmz (1.1 KB)

There are no pixels on ZoomEarth.

Here is a very good BBC investigation of the camps. Many problems apply to all refugee camps, but the Lesbos camps are unique in several ways.



It's interesting to see how camp politics and chaos play out based on what is going on in the "real world." One doctor with Médecins sans Frontières told an interviewer that the Moria Camp was the worst one he has ever worked in, even worse than working in Ebola clinics in Liberia, because it was more squalid and more violent. That organization pulled out of the Lesbos camps, which was remarkable for such a fearless group. This video also shows the severe mental health toll the camps have taken on refugees. They were already traumatized when they arrived on the island, then were subjected to brutality from warring factions in the camps. Everyone concerned expects the Greek government to provide what is needed, but it's a poor country and was in the middle of severe economic problems when the refugee waves began.

Does any of the above suggest what may happen - perhaps is already happening under a different name - with climate migration?

Updated file, including the former Moria Camp...

Lesbos Refugee Camps.kmz (1.24 KB)